Fly Away
by radredknuxfan
Summary: Blu and Jewel's life in the Amazon gets thrown into chaos as their kids disappear into the rainforest. Can they find them before it's too late? And why did they fly off in the first place? This story takes place during the events of Rio 2. COMPLETE
1. Chapter 1

Okay, I'll admit that I'm only a recent fan of the Rio films. I only picked up the first one because I was at Best Buy purchasing a gift, and I got it for ten bucks. It also had a free ticket for Rio 2 as well, which was very nice. Anyway, I watched the movie and it was actually really good. I really liked the music, and the story was pretty nice as well. Same goes for the sequel. Anyway, things aren't really going to be so colorful and high spirited with the idea I have for this fic, so don't expect anything like any of the other stories I've written on my profile.

* * *

It was a beautiful day in the Amazon. The birds are chirping, the animals are going about their business…everything was going smoothly, just like any normal day.

Inside the secret spix macaw sanctuary, Blu, Jewel and the kids were busy trying to smoothly integrate themselves into the community. However, a wrench was thrown into their plans when Jewel's old friend Roberto shows up, firmly planting himself between the two of them. This forced Blu to resort to desperate measures to make sure that Roberto doesn't go as far as to try to steal Jewel away from him.

First, he tried making friends with Jewel's father Eduardo, letting the older macaw teach him how to live life as a wild macaw, but his domesticated lifestyle prevented him from effectively perform the tasks Eduardo asked him to do. This only led to him thinking that Blu wasn't worth training, further driving a wedge between them.

Blu even tried to impress Jewel by putting himself into a game of fruit ball against the scarlet red macaws, which he accidentally made happen by taking a Brazil nut from their territory. He played well for a while after getting substituted in, only to score the winning goal for the other team.

Despondent after realizing that the whole colony probably hates him, he decided that the best course of action was to talk to Jewel and see what was going on.

So, as everyone was about to go to bed, Blu flew into their tree house and landed next to Jewel as she was putting Tiago into bed.

"Hey Jewel, can I speak to you for a moment? In private?"

Jewel nodded, and the two of them flew up higher into the tree house.

"What's going on, Blu?"

Blu sighed before replying.

"Look, I've been noticing how you and Roberto seem to be getting along. A little too well, if you ask me."

Jewel looked at Blu, slightly confused.

"Wait, what are you talking about? We've known each other since we were little! Do you really expect me to just ignore him?"

Blu didn't answer, but Jewel could tell what he was thinking from his expression.

"I get it. You're jealous, aren't you?"

"What? N-no, of course not. What makes you think that I'd be jealous of that bird?"

Jewel gave him a disbelieving look.

"Sure, of course you're not."

Blu sighed, realizing he was caught.

"Yeah, alright. I am kind of jealous of him. Who wouldn't be, though?"

Jewel opened his beak to answer before Blu cut her off as he continued speaking.

"Honestly, I'd just feel more comfortable if you'd be a little supportive of me. Most of the other birds probably hate me because of that fiasco with the red macaws this afternoon, and you're busy spending time with everyone else."

Jewel stared at Blu with a hurt expression on his face.

"Wh-I'm just trying to get out and spend time with my family! Why would you say these things?"

Suddenly, Blu's expression faltered as he realized he shouldn't have said what he said. But before he could apologize, Jewel suddenly spoke again.

"Look, Blu…I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt and say that this was just pent-up aggression from today. You didn't really have to take it out on me, though!"

"I'm sorry, Jewel. I didn't mean-"

Jewel held up a wing to cut him off.

"Let's just head to bed. Hopefully a good night's sleep will help you cool off."

Blu stared at Jewel as she flew back down to where the kids were; regret filling his heart as he thought the stupid things he said.

"Stupid. Why didn't I think this through better?" he said to himself as he followed Jewel down.

He was about ready to fall asleep next to her before she suddenly pushed him away with a wing.

"Please Blu, I need some space."

Depressed at how far this has gotten, Blu slowly flew over to another area of the tree house, wishing today never happened as he went to sleep.

* * *

The next day, Blu woke up refreshed and ready for a new day, before suddenly remembering what happened last night. He looked over to where Jewel was originally sleeping only to find she wasn't there, and neither were the kids.

Blu decided that the best course of action to start the day was to find Jewel and apologize, knowing that he needed to get it over with if he wanted to repair their relationship.

So, as he flew out of the treehouse and into the sanctuary, he kept one eye looking around the area for Jewel. Eventually, he found her standing near the waterfall in the middle of the sanctuary, talking to her dad. He immediately went into a dive, landing near where they were.

"Excuse me, sir?"

Eduardo turned around to look at Blu, a stern look on his face.

"I hear you've been saying some bad things to my daughter. I won't stand for that, as I'm sure you've figured out already."

Blu gulped before replying.

"That's actually the reason I'm here. Can I speak to her, alone?"

Eduardo's expression didn't change, which Blu took as a 'no'.

"Well, can I at least speak to her, please?"

Eduardo continued to stare at Blu for a few more seconds before finally relenting.

"Alright, but I'm keeping my eye on you."

Blu sighed in relief as he turned toward Jewel.

"Jewel, I just wanted to apologize for what I said last night."

Jewel gave a disapproving noise, but she let Blu continue.

"While I do still love the time that I've spent back in Minnesota, spending a majority of my lifetime with just Linda for company, as well as originally thinking I was the only bird of my kind in existence can lead to a pretty lonely life. But now that I have you and the kids, as well as everyone else in this sanctuary, it's a lot to take in, especially with someone like me who is used to the kind of lifestyle I had. And now that I was suddenly alone again just as I finally got used to being around you guys… it was too much to take!"

Jewel's expression noticeably softened as she listened to Blu's explanation.

"So, what I'm saying is, can you forgive me?"

Blu looked at Jewel nervously, not sure whether his apology was enough. But when she smiled, he sighed in relief.

"Apology accepted, Blu. I'm glad to see you've finally come to your senses."

"I'm really sorry about that, Jewel. I promise, I'll find a different way to let off steam if this kind of thing ever happens again."

Blu and Jewel both hugged before Blu looked at Eduardo, who gave him a small smile.

"Good work on that, Blu. Don't expect me to be more lenient if this happens again, though."

"Of course, sir. Thanks for understanding."

Eduardo grunted before flying off.

"So, what do you want to do now?" asked Blu.

"What's say we grab the kids and go see what the guys are up to?"

"Sounds good. Do you know where they are?"

"I thought that you still had them back at the treehouse." said Jewel.

"No, they were gone when I woke up. I figured that they were here with you."

Blu's eyes widened as he realized what could have happened, but Jewel was there to comfort him.

"Don't worry, Blu. I'm sure that they're probably somewhere around the sanctuary. We'll find them."

Blu still looked noticeably nervous, but he nodded and the two of them flew off to begin their search.

* * *

However, their search efforts were fruitless, as neither of them could find any of the kids, even with the help of the other macaws.

The two of them were noticeably beginning to panic as they found Nico, Pedro and Rafael, who were busy setting up their own version of Carnaval.

As they landed on the ground, Rafael looked over and saw the two of them, immediately noticing the look that the two of them had on their faces.

"What's going on, you two? You look like you've seen a ghost!"

"Raf, we can't find the kids!" said Blu.

"What do you mean? Aren't they still in the sanctuary?"

"We've looked everywhere! They're nowhere to be found!" said Jewel.

"Dear lord, then that must mean…"

None of them wanted to think of that possibility, so Rafael decided to just drop it right there, turning towards the other two birds.

"Yo Nico! Pedro!"

The two of them flew over and landed in front of them.

"What gives, Raf? We kind of had a thing going with that last act!" said Pedro.

"Blu and Jewel's kids are missing."

Nico and Pedro both gasped.

"They're not in the sanctuary?" asked Nico.

Both Blu and Jewel shook their heads.

"Well, we've got to get a search party going! The sooner we get out there, the less of a chance they have to get too far out."

"So, are you guys going to help us out?" asked Jewel.

"Of course! What kind of friends would we be if we didn't?" said Rafael.

"Thanks so much, you guys. It means a lot." said Blu.

They were all about to fly off, when Pedro suddenly stopped, having realized something.

"Hey you guys, wait a second!"

The rest of the group stopped in their tracks and looked back at Pedro.

"What is it, Pedro? We're kind of losing time here." said Blu, wanting to get moving so they don't lose any more ground.

"The Amazon's a big place. It's gonna take weeks for the five of us to search through it by ourselves. We need to get more birds to help!"

"Pedro does have a point, you guys. You think we should ask the other macaws for help?" asked Jewel.

Blu wasn't sure if they would be willing after what he did to them, but he figured it wouldn't hurt to give it a shot.

"Yeah, let's go talk to them. I'm sure that they'd be happy to help once we explain our situation."

So, as the five birds flew off towards the spix macaw sanctuary, Blu couldn't help but worry, hoping that their children were still okay. However, there was a also a thought at the back of his mind wondering why the kids disappeared in the first place, but he brushed it off, preferring instead to focus on the task ahead.

* * *

Thanks for taking the time to read this. Let me know what you think.


	2. Chapter 2

After some searching, Blu, Jewel and the rest of the group managed to find Eduardo on the outskirts of the sanctuary.

"Whoa, where's the fire? You guys all look like you're in a hurry to get somewhere."

"We're sorry about that sir, but we have an emergency." said Blu.

"What kind of emergency?"

"The kids are gone! They disappeared this morning, and we haven't seen them anywhere around the sanctuary." said Jewel.

Eduardo's eyes widened in surprise as he learned about this turn of events.

"If they're not in the sanctuary, then they're probably somewhere in the depths of the Amazon by this point. You're going to have a lot of ground to cover."

"That's why we came to you. We were hoping that you and the rest of the macaws would be able to help us out searching for the three of them." said Rafael, who came up next to Blu as he spoke.

Eduardo paused as he thought about his choice. He definitely wanted to be able to find the kids, considering he didn't want to lose them so soon after finding out he was a grandfather. However, the safety of the rest of the flock was way too important for him to agree to send the other macaws in hundreds of directions where they could get captured, or worse.

So, reluctantly, he turned towards the rest of the group with a sad look on his face.

"I would love to be able to help you guys out, but I can't risk sending everyone out into the forest."

"Come on, daddy! Our kids are out there probably lost and very afraid, and the more birds we have out there searching, the quicker we can bring them back to safety. Do you want them starving to death on your conscience?"

Jewel gave her father a distraught look, hoping to convince him to change his mind, but the older bird turned away, not able to look at his daughter.

"I'm sorry, Jewel. I can't. Roberto can go with you, but that's all I can compromise on."

As the rest of the group looked on, Jewel stared at her father, unable to say anything. Finally, she turned away from Eduardo to face Blu, looking like she was on the verge of tears.

"Let's go find Roberto. I want to start searching as soon as we can."

Without waiting for an answer, Jewel flew off, leaving everyone else standing there, trading looks between Eduardo and the disappearing form of Jewel.

Blu, meanwhile, looked at the distraught Eduardo, studying the expression on his face. While he did feel some pity for the predicament he was in with trying to protect the sanctuary from smugglers and other predators, he did wish that Eduardo would have found it in his heart to let some of the other macaws help find the kids. But Blu sighed to himself, knowing the past was the past, as he turned towards the rest of the group.

"Come on, you guys. Let's go find Roberto as well so we can get the search started."

Rafael walked up and placed a comforting wing around Blu's shoulders.

"We're with you, buddy, through thick and thin. Isn't that right, you guys?"

Pedro and Nico responded in the affirmative, and Blu gave the three of them a small smile. As the four of them flew off, Blu couldn't help but look back at Eduardo, and he was able to catch the forlorn look Jewel's father gave them before he flew off in a different direction.

* * *

The guys finally managed to catch up to Jewel just as she found Roberto hanging out in a tree over near the waterfall.

"Are you doing alright, Jewel?" asked Blu as they all landed not far from where Roberto was.

Jewel paused, letting out a shuddering breath before turning towards Blu.

"I'll be alright. I just needed to get that out of my system."

Blu wrapped his wings around Jewel, and the two of them stood there for a few seconds while everyone else looked on.

"Don't worry, we'll find them. I know we will."

Finally, Blu let Jewel go, and they were about to join Roberto when Jewel suddenly spoke up again.

"I really should apologize to my dad. I know that he means well, even if his priorities aren't always completely straight."

"Good idea, but let's worry about that once the kids are safe home, alright?" asked Blu.

Jewel nodded, and they finally flitted up to the tree branch Roberto was on.

"What's going on, you guys? You look like you two have got something on your minds."

"Let me just get right to the point, Roberto. Our kids are missing in the jungle, and Jewel's dad wants you to come with us to help find them." said Blu, who still didn't trust Roberto being around Jewel despite it really being the wrong time for jealousy.

As for Roberto himself, his beak fell open in surprise temporarily before he closed it again, adopting a determined look on his face.

"Say no more. I'm with you guys all the way. We'll bring the kids back no matter what it takes."

"Thank you, Roberto. We really appreciate it." said Jewel, hugging Roberto while Blu looked on desperately trying to hide the feelings of jealousy that was cropping up in his chest.

Finally, Blu had had enough, putting himself between the two of them and separating them with his wings.

"Alright, you two. I think we should probably get going. We're already losing time."

Although Jewel gave Blu a small glare for the interruption, they both nodded and the six birds flew off, heading into the jungle.

* * *

An hour passed, and there was still no sign of the kids anywhere. As much as Blu wanted to stick together so they don't get lost, he knew that they would never get anywhere if they flew in one big clump.

So, he signaled for the rest of the team to land, and they did so on a tree branch.

"Is there something going on, Blu?" asked Nico.

"As much as I hate to admit it, we're not getting anywhere with the six of us together. We should be able to cover more ground if we split up into groups."

"That's actually a pretty good idea." said Rafael, nodding.

Everyone else nodded in agreement as well, so Blu took it as a signal to continue on.

"Alright, so Jewel and I are going to be in one group. Nico and Pedro are going to be another, and Rafi and Roberto are going to be the last group. Any questions?"

Pedro raised his wing.

"I think you would probably know about this already, but that's only three groups and still a lot of ground to cover. Are you sure that doing it solo wouldn't be better?"

Blu sighed before replying.

"While I do agree that it would work better that way, the Amazon is massive, and I'm pretty positive Roberto is the only one of us that actually has any idea of where things are. Isn't that right, Roberto?"

Roberto shrugged.

"Not everything, to be honest. But it's enough to get around."

"Not exactly what I expected, but it still proves my point. Searching in pairs should help us cover more ground without getting ourselves too lost." said Blu.

Blu looked at the rest of the team, waiting to see if there were any more questions. When none came, he straightened up.

"A couple more things I want to say before we split up. I'm sure all of you don't want to be out here after dark, so start heading back to the sanctuary when the sun starts to set. Also, if any of you guys manage to find the kids, take them back to the sanctuary and stay with them. I don't want to risk anything else happening. Everyone understand?"

Everyone replied in the affirmative, and they finally split up into their groups, heading in different directions to begin their search.

As Blu and Jewel flew off to their section of the jungle, Jewel couldn't help but point out something she saw from Blu.

"Wow, Blu, you really know how to take charge."

Blu nervously coughed, not expecting to get complimented like that.

"Really? Uh…thanks, Jewel. I guess when you put your mind to it; you can pretty much do anything, especially if you have such great friends like we do."

Jewel smiled as they continued on, calling out for their missing children the entire time.

* * *

Meanwhile, not far from said tree, Nigel was busy making his way through the jungle on top of Charlie the tamandua. As for Gabi, she was perched on top of Charlie's hat, her eyes focused entirely on Nigel.

"Ugh, where is that blasted bird? I swear, the Amazon feels so much larger than it really is." said Nigel.

"I know where one bird is." said Gabi, sighing as she looked at the mangled cockatoo.

Nigel glared at Gabi, realizing who she was talking about.

"Not me, you dolt! I'm talking about that blue bird that ruined my life!"

Gabi continued to stare at Nigel for the next few seconds, before suddenly realizing what she was supposed to be doing.

"Sorry, Nige. I'll make sure to keep a lookout for him."

The poison dart frog faced the other way and began looking around if there was any sign of Blu, but not before looking back at Nigel one more time and sighing in content.

Suddenly, a rustling noise came from the trees above. Hearing the noise, Nigel looked up and saw a streak of blue, followed by separate streaks of yellow, red and black. Realizing he may have found them, Nigel quickly looked forward once again.

"Follow those birds, Charlie! Yah!"

Nigel slapped Charlie on the butt as hard as he could with his mangled wings, and the tamandua rushed off as quickly as possible, barely managing to keep up with the birds.

Unfortunately, Charlie began to wear out, allowing the birds to pull ahead.

"Come on, move! They're getting away!" yelled Nigel.

Finally, Charlie slowed to a stop, collapsing to the ground and breathing heavily.

"Agh, you stupid animal! What are you even worth to me anymore?" said Nigel, giving Charlie a swift kick as he dismounted him.

Nigel looked up at the swiftly disappearing flock of birds, wondering just what exactly they were in such a hurry to do, when Gabi suddenly spoke up, having hopped up on to a log next to the cockatoo.

"So, what are we going to do now, Nigel? With the speed they were going, it's probably going to take a while if we even hope to catch up to them."

Nigel paused, considering his next course of action.

"Well, we're not going to be getting anywhere with Charlie in the state he's in, so I suppose we're going to have to spend the night here. Hopefully they still have a place to go to at night so we have an idea of where they're at."

Gabi nodded even though her eyes were still staring dreamily at Nigel, unable to focus on anything else besides him.

As the three evil-doers prepared to spend the night, Nigel's thoughts returned to what was so important that Blu needed to fly at those kinds of speeds for. He was admittedly curious.

However, he was rudely pulled out of his thoughts when Gabi began loudly eating a fly she caught with her tongue. Sighing in disgust, Nigel fell asleep, thinking that he would be able to get some answers tomorrow.


	3. Chapter 3

Unfortunately, before the search could really get going, a thunderstorm came though the Amazon, forcing the search party to find shelter, as they couldn't risk continuing to look for the kids with how bad the weather was being.

As Blu and Jewel looked at the rain falling around them from the safety of a convenient hole in a tree, Blu sighed, looking down at his feet.

"This is going from bad to worse."

"Hey, cheer up, Blu. Just because it's thundering right now doesn't mean anything bad it happening to them. They might be in shelter like us, completely safe."

"I hope you're right, Jewel. I really do."

Unable to think of anything else to say, the two macaws decided to pass the time waiting out the storm by taking a nap, thinking that being more rested would help them out.

* * *

Blu woke up a little while later to find the rain had thankfully stopped. But when he had fully awakened, he found himself face to face with Felipe of all birds.

Blu yelled in surprise, which woke up Jewel. She looked around in confusion for a bit, wondering what was going on when she saw the scarlet macaw standing right in front of the two of them.

"Felipe, what are you doing here?"

"I should be asking you that same question. What are you doing back in our territory?"

Blu sighed, not in the mood to deal with this after what he had to go through yesterday.

"Look Felipe, I'm sorry that we crossed over into your territory. To be honest, I would stay out of it more if I actually knew what parts of the jungle were yours. How about you tell me what the boundaries are? Huh?"

Felipe was flustered, not expecting Blu to be that cross. But before he could open his beak to retort, Blu continued talking.

"Now if you'll excuse us, our kids are missing, and we have to go find them."

Blu roughly pushed past Felipe, with Jewel giving him a sympathetic look as she passed by. However, before they could fly off, Felipe flew off as well to catch up to them, realizing how much of an idiot he was being.

"Hey guys, wait!"

Blu and Jewel stopped, and they both looked at him questioningly.

"I just wanted to apologize for the way I acted just now. I haven't had any kids yet, but I understand how much you guys must be worried about them. I'll make sure the other scarlet macaws don't interfere while you're finding them, but I can't guarantee anything past that."

Both Blu and Jewel smiled.

"Thanks, Felipe." said Jewel as the two of them flew off to continue their search.

* * *

A few miles away, Pedro and Nico were also continuing their search once the thunderstorm cleared out. However, they were in the middle of combing through an area that had a lot of plants that the kids would easily be able to blend into, a fact that irritated Pedro.

"Man, we're never going to find any of them through all of this blue!"

Nico looked around the area and found that the majority of the ground was indeed covered with plants that could easily hide the kids if they weren't higher in the trees. Still, he wasn't worried.

"True, but there's no guarantee they ended up down there. They're birds, remember?"

Pedro did see Nico's point, but something else was weighing on his mind.

"Well, what if they couldn't find somewhere high to ride out the thunderstorm? Those plants could give them some decent cover, especially with how small they are."

"If it'll make you feel better, Pedro, how about you fly closer to the ground? You might be able to see through the plants easier."

"I will do that."

Pedro dived down closer to the ground, combing through the bushes while Nico continued to look around in the trees.

Not too long after, Pedro suddenly spotted something a few feet away from him.

"Hey Nico, I think I found something!"

Nico quickly looked down just as Pedro shot beneath the bushes, appearing a few seconds later with a blue feather.

"You think it's one of theirs?" asked Nico as he flew down to meet them.

Rather than answer, Pedro started to study the feather, even going as far as to sniff it and put it into his mouth, earning him a disgusted look from Nico.

"Eww, what was that, man?"

"I saw that guy Tulio doing it once, and he was able to figure out what bird it belonged to. I thought I would be able to as well if I did it that way."

Nico gave him a disbelieving look.

"Wouldn't that also involve actually knowing about other birds besides you?"

"Hey, I am a pretty cool bird to know about." said Pedro, giving Nico a suave look.

Nico couldn't resist chuckling.

"You're something else, Pedro. Come on, we might be on the right track."

The two birds flew off once more, with the two of them once again covering the top and bottom of the area.

* * *

As for Rafael and Roberto, things weren't going as well as originally planned. The fact that they were the only team out of the search party who barely knows each other came back to bite them hard.

Despite the fact that Roberto had his heart in the right place with wanting to find the kids, his brain was leading him astray, as every so often whenever the two of them pass by a female bird, Roberto couldn't resist showing off a little bit to them, which annoyed Rafael greatly.

Finally, after one too many times of having to pull Roberto away from some girls so that they could continue the search, Rafi had finally had enough. He not only pulled Roberto away from the girls, he pulled the bird all the way to a tree branch far away from them, setting him down on it as he confronted him.

"What's going on, Roberto? You've been going on before we started this whole thing about how you're all in on finding the kids, but now I see you're too busy scoping out the chicas. What's wrong with you, man?!"

"What do you mean? I'm just asking them if they've seen the kids."

Rafael gave Roberto a disbelieving look, clearly seeing through his poor attempt at an excuse.

"What's Jewel going to think of you now when she sees you like this? She sees you like a brother!"

Roberto opened his beak, but closed it when he realized Rafi was right. He sighed.

"Oh god, what have I been doing? Ju-ju's going to hate me for being like this."

Rafael, realizing that Roberto understands how he was acting, placed a comforting wing around his shoulder.

"Let me tell you something, Roberto. I used to be kind of like you once. Maybe not as handsome as you are, but I was a party animal. Most of my free time was spent in any of the bird clubs around Rio. But when I met my wonderful wife Eva, and we had our kids, I knew that I had to change. It's not so bad, to be honest. The kids can be a handful, but I at least still get to spend some time with the guys."

"How many kids do you have?" asked Roberto, curious.

"Twenty-one."

Roberto's beak fell open.

"That many? Man, that must be tough."

Rafael chuckled.

"Yeah, it can be. But all I have to do to quiet them all down is to threaten to call their mother. She can be a bit of a control freak, but I love her just the same."

Roberto smiled as he thought about what Rafael said.

"Thanks for that, Rafael. I needed that."

"Just call me Rafi."

Roberto nodded, finally resolving to turn himself around and focus his entire attention on the search ahead.

However, before they could get on with it, the sun started to set.

"Looks like it's starting to get dark. Let's head back while we can still see our way around. That sound good with you, Rafi?" asked Roberto.

Rafael looked back behind him, not wanting to abandon the search after finally getting somewhere, but he knew it wouldn't be safe, so he agreed, and the two of them headed back towards the sanctuary, with Roberto leading the way.

* * *

Rafael and Roberto returned to the sanctuary a little while later to find the rest of the search party had already returned a little bit before they did. However, Jewel was nowhere to be found, so when they landed, Rafael went ahead and asked about it.

"Hey Blu, where's Jewel at?"

"Oh, she went to go find her dad and apologize about what happened this morning. She should be back pretty soon, hopefully."

Rafi nodded, and the five of them waited for Jewel to return, idly chatting about some interesting things that happened while they were out.

Finally, Jewel returned a little while later looking noticeably happier.

"Hey Jewel. How did things go with your dad?" asked Blu.

"Pretty well, actually. I told him I don't blame him for wanting to protect the flock, and we patched things up. I was kind of surprised how quickly things went."

"Well, he did seem pretty remorseful from the look I saw on his face." said Blu.

Jewel gave Blu a warm smile before turning towards the rest of the group.

"So, did you guys manage to find anything?"

Both Rafael and Roberto shook their heads, but Pedro showed the two of them the feather he found, which was slightly mangled due to Pedro's treatment of it.

Jewel looked at the feather, slightly confused.

"What is it?"

"It's a feather! I found it on the ground a few miles out, and I think it might belong to one of the kids." said Pedro.

"What happened to it, though? It looks like it's been through quite a lot." said Blu.

"Pedro tried to use that technique that Tulio does to determine what kind of bird it belonged to."

Everyone else besides Pedro and Nico looked disgusted, forcing Pedro to defend himself.

"What? I thought it would work!"

"Well, regardless, we have at least something to go on. As for Blu and I, we didn't find anything, but we did manage to convince Felipe to let us search in the scarlet macaw territory. And I wouldn't have been able to do it without Blu's help, too." said Jewel.

Blu blushed.

"Oh, it was nothing."

"So, if we're done here, I say we all head for bed. Getting back on the search early in the morning should help us catch up with them a little easier."

Everyone else agreed with Jewel's reasoning, and the six of them headed off to rest as they prepared for another day.


	4. Chapter 4

Alright, just so people don't get on me about this, let me take care of some loose ends.

DISCLAIMER: Everything related to Rio is owned by 20th Century Fox and Blue Sky Studios. The only thing I claim as mine is the concept of this story.

* * *

The sun rose on yet another gorgeous day in the Amazon. Inside the spix macaw sanctuary, Blu, Jewel and Roberto were asleep inside Roberto's pad. Since another one of the macaws was taking care of the night watch, this allowed Roberto to keep the two lovebirds company, which they appreciated.

Jewel was the first one to wake up, and as she looked over at her mate, she saw that Blu was still fast asleep. The one thing that really surprised her was the look of anguish on Blu's face as he was unable to keep still.

Jewel quickly went into action, grabbing Blu and shaking him as hard as she could.

"Blu? Blu! Wake up!"

Blu awoke with a start, heavily breathing as he looked around the room.

"What? What happened?"

Jewel gave him a warm smile.

"It's nothing, Blu. You were just having a bad dream."

Blu took a few seconds to collect his thoughts. Suddenly, he started to remember snippets of his dream, and his expression darkened.

"Sorry if I worried you, Jewel. I know that I'm trying to be strong while we look for the kids, but I can't help but think of all the bad things that could be happening to them right now."

Jewel shushed him, wrapping her wings around him.

"It's okay to be afraid sometimes, Blu. I'm not going to think any different of you."

Blu gave Jewel a smile of his own before the two of them broke their embrace.

"We should get going. We've gotta meet up with everyone else before we head off."

Jewel nodded, and Blu flew off to where the search team met up last time. But before Jewel could follow, Roberto suddenly woke up.

"Morning, sleepyhead. You woke up just in time. We're going to meet up before we head off today. You coming?" asked Jewel.

"You know it! Come on, let's go, Ju-ju!" said Roberto, ready to prove to Rafael that his mind was in the right place.

Jewel couldn't help but be impressed with Roberto's sudden can-do attitude.

"Wow, you definitely seem ready to go."

Roberto replied with a grin, not wanting to reveal his new outlook on life quite yet. At least, not while the kids were still missing.

Their conversation finished, the two birds flew out of the tree and began making their way to the meeting spot.

* * *

Jewel and Roberto finally managed to make it to the meeting spot not too long after everyone else arrived. As Roberto went over to join Rafael, Blu flew out in front of the group.

"Alright, I'll make this short so we can get started. Does everyone remember where they left off in their sections?"

Expecting to see all affirmative answers, Blu was surprised to see a lot of reluctant 'kind of' answers instead. Blu sighed, before amending the orders that he was going to originally say.

"Just try and see if you guys can at least find the general area of where you left off yesterday. I don't really want to waste any time treading ground that we've already went through."

Blu paused to look at the rest of the team.

"So, does anyone have any questions before we go?"

Rafael raised his wing.

"Sorry to ask, but what makes you think that the kids wouldn't head towards areas that we have already covered in our search? It's pretty unlikely that they would be heading in one direction the entire time."

Blu opened his beak to rebut, but he realized that Rafi did have a point.

"You know what? You're right. If you guys feel like it would help, go ahead and search through the areas you already went through. Be quick about it, though. We don't want to lose any more ground."

The rest of the search party nodded in understanding.

"Good. You guys should all remember the guidelines, so let's get started."

The six birds split into their groups, and they all flew off, ready for another day of searching.

* * *

As Blu and Jewel began the search inside their section of the forest, they began running into a lot more of the scarlet macaw tribe. Both of them were understandably nervous seeing all of the looks that they were giving the two of them, but thankfully none of them interfered.

"Thank you, Felipe." Blu said to himself once they finally passed all of them and reached a new section of the forest.

As they flew through the forest, calling out each of their kids' names, Blu suddenly realized something. He turned towards Jewel as they landed on a tree branch to rest.

"Hey Jewel, do you really think we should be yelling so loud?"

"What do you mean? We can't exactly rely on just looking for them."

"Well, I do agree that we can't just stop yelling. We just shouldn't be yelling as loud. It might attract predators."

"Oh come on, Blu. When was the last time that you've ever seen any predators here?"

As if to answer Jewel's question, the two birds froze as they heard a low growling sound. They looked down below them and saw a jaguar eyeing them hungrily.

"What do we do?" asked Jewel.

"Don't move. Maybe it might leave us alone."

Unfortunately, Blu's plan backfired almost immediately, as the jaguar began climbing up the tree at a pretty fast pace.

"RUN!" Blu yelled.

Both of the birds took off immediately. As for the jaguar, their sudden escape caught it off guard, and it fell off of the tree, landing on its side. Almost as if the less than graceful fall never happened, the jaguar hopped up on to its feet seconds later and ran after the birds, managing to keep up with the two of them quite easily.

As Blu and Jewel continued to fly through the forest, Blu looked behind him and yelled in fright as he saw the jaguar behind them. Thankfully, Jewel was there with her own plan.

"Get up above the trees! We might be able to lose him if we do!"

Not wanting to waste time arguing, Blu angled himself upwards, successfully managing to squeeze through an opening in the trees. He began hovering, squinting as his eyes adjusted to the bright sun.

Jewel popped up not too far away from where Blu was, and she went over to rejoin her mate.

"You okay?" Blu asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. That was close."

Jewel took a second to catch her breath before speaking again.

"Let's wait for a bit before we head back down. I don't want to run into that big cat again."

"Me neither. I thought I had it bad with the house cats back in Minnesota." said Blu.

As they landed on a high tree branch to rest, Jewel couldn't help but giggle at Blu's attempt at humor. However, Blu saw through it pretty easily.

"Now Jewel, I know when you're trying to humor me. I know that joke was pretty bad."

Jewel put on a face like she didn't know what Blu was talking about, but relented when she saw the unimpressed look on her mate's face.

"Alright, alright. You do still need some work on your delivery, but you're getting there!"

Although Blu didn't feel like he was as far along as Jewel said, he still smiled at the compliment.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Jewel."

She only replied with a light chuckle, as the two lovebirds put their heads together while they waited for the right time to continue their search.

* * *

As for Pedro and Nico, the high of possibly finding one of the kids' feathers wore off pretty quickly, as their search through the sections they already went through turned up empty. Still, they weren't dismayed by the lack of any new clues, as that meant they were most likely still heading away from the sanctuary.

Once they reached a new part of their assigned section, they landed on a tree branch nearby to plan out their route.

"So, what do you think? Should we go with the sure thing and do what we did yesterday?" asked Pedro.

"Sounds good. How about we trade places, though? You take top and I take bottom."

"Any reason why?"

"Just to switch things up."

Pedro looked at Nico warily for a second before figuring that there was no harm in trying something different. He shrugged before replying.

"Yeah, sure. Maybe it might work out a little better."

Nico nodded, and the two of them took off, to begin their search through the new area.

Eventually, Pedro and Nico came upon a small clearing. Neither of them saw anything in the area, so they were about to leave the area and move on. However, Nico stopped in his tracks, as he suddenly got an idea.

"Hey, Pedro!" he called out to his friend, who was already on his way out of the clearing.

The red-crested cardinal stopped in his tracks, turning around to face where Nico was still hovering.

"What is it? Shouldn't we keep moving?"

"Come here! I've got an idea!"

Once Pedro rejoined Nico in the clearing, the canary pointed down towards the ground.

"You see the ground down there? It might still be soft after the thunderstorm yesterday, so there might be some tracks."

Instead of commending Nico on his idea, Pedro looked at his friend like he grew another head.

"Are you crazy? Have you forgotten that we're all birds? And that we can fly?"

"Hey, nothing wrong with giving it a shot. Don't you agree?"

Pedro sighed in exasperation.

"I swear, I don't know where your head's at sometimes."

"Pot calling the kettle black, Pedro."

Pedro didn't quite get Nico's idiom, so he just looked at him confused. Rather than try to explain it to him, Nico just rolled his eyes and headed towards the ground, Pedro following close behind.

As Nico walked along the ground, searching for any clues, Pedro followed along, half-heartedly looking himself, mostly because he didn't believe that they would find anything.

However, Pedro's doubts would be proved incorrect, as Nico suddenly called out.

"Hey, I found something!"

Pedro flitted over to where Nico was standing, and his beak fell open as he saw a set of small footprints in the ground.

Pedro looked at Nico in shock, definitely not expecting that the kids would ever travel on the ground.

As for Nico himself, he couldn't resist giving his friend a smug look at being right.

"You know, I don't think I'll ever figure you out." said Pedro, shaking his head.

Nico opened his beak to say something, when the two of them suddenly heard rustling from a bush on the outskirts of the clearing.

"Did you hear that?" whispered Nico as he looked over at his friend.

Pedro nodded.

"I hope it's not anything that's going to eat us!" he said, freaking himself out as he thought about all the predators that would most likely be having them for lunch right about now.

Nico paused before replying.

"I'm gonna go check it out."

"No, don't!"

Pedro frantically tried to grab at Nico and hold him back, but the canary was too fast. Pedro watched nervously as Nico flitted over to the bush and peered through it.

Expecting to see a giant animal bursting out of the bush, Pedro was surprised to hear a gasp coming from Nico.

"Pedro, come quick!"

The red-crested cardinal shot over to the bush and his beak dropped as he saw what was inside.

"Oh my god."


	5. Chapter 5

DISCLAIMER: Everything related to Rio is owned by 20th Century Fox and Blue Sky Studios. The only thing I claim as mine is the concept for this story.

* * *

Nigel and Gabi were once again aimlessly riding through the jungle, trying to find Blu so that Nigel could follow through with his plans of revenge.

"I don't understand! We've been searching for hours, and I haven't seen hide nor feather of that blasted bird!" said Nigel, exasperated.

Although Nigel was still focused on eliminating Blu, in the back of his mind he still remembered about what happened yesterday, and his curiosity has not abated in the hours since then.

Rather than give him her usual love struck look, Gabi gave Nigel a slightly annoyed look instead, remembering how many times she attempted to let Nigel know that Blu was there.

"Didn't you know? He was at that audition those other birds were having. You were too busy singing to notice."

Nigel's eyes widened as he realized what Gabi was saying. He quickly pulled back on Charlie's neck, making the tamandua stop as he focused on the frog.

"Are you telling me that I was this close to him, and I didn't even see him?"

Nigel had two of his feathers spaced about an inch apart from each other to emphasize his point. Gabi simply nodded, and Nigel took it pretty hard.

"Oh why must my need to be a star override my other needs?"

Nigel covered his face with one of his wings as he lightly tapped Charlie on the head in despair.

However, as Nigel was busy feeling sorry for himself, Gabi suddenly heard a noise coming from a few feet away.

"Shh! Do you hear that?"

Nigel ignored Gabi at first, but after another, louder shush from the frog, he reluctantly became quiet and listened in.

"I do hear something! Let's go see what it is."

Nigel, now somewhat excited, turned Charlie to face the direction of the sound and began making his way over to where it was.

* * *

"Oh my god! Tiago!"

By some miracle, Blu and Jewel's son just happened to be in the bush that Pedro and Nico were currently looking at. Both of them were excited that they finally managed to find one of them, but when they managed to pull him out of the bush and get a good look at them, it wasn't a pretty sight.

Tiago was thankfully still breathing, but his body was covered in scratches, and he also looked incredibly frazzled, no doubt due to the stress he must have been going through over the last day or so since they went missing.

One of his wings was also bent at an angle that made Nico cringe, as he wondered just what happened to make it that way.

Nervously, Pedro leaned towards Tiago and gave him a light shake, hoping that he would wake up. Unfortunately, he didn't, so the two friends had only one option.

"We have to get him back to the sanctuary, and quickly!" said Nico.

"I agree, but how are we gonna fix him up? He looks like a mess, and I highly doubt any of the birds have any medical experience."

Nico paused as he considered what to do.

"What about Linda and Tulio? They can take him back to Rio, and he'll be fixed up no problem!"

"That can work. How are we gonna let them know, though? We're not exactly buddy-buddy with them like Blu is with Linda."

"Well, we'll just leave it up to Blu. Once we get Bia and Carla back, we can get them help all at once!"

Pedro nodded, understanding what Nico was getting at. However, when the canary mentioned the other kids, he suddenly realized something was missing.

"Where are Bia and Carla, anyway? I don't see them."

Pedro and Nico quickly scanned the area, but there was no sign of the two females. Once they returned to Tiago's side, Nico turned towards his friend.

"I'm guessing that they must have gotten separated during yesterday's storm."

"Man, and here I was thinking that we've found them all! Hopefully they haven't gotten too far."

Nico sighed, agreeing with Pedro's comment.

"We'd better get Tiago back to the sanctuary."

Both Nico and Pedro looked at Tiago anxiously, not wanting to cause the small bird any more pain. However, the only option they had to carry him was with their feet, so they reluctantly went to either side of Tiago and lightly grabbed him with their talons, lifting off and flying back to the sanctuary as carefully as possible.

* * *

As they flew off, though, a rustling came from another bush next to the clearing, and Nigel, Gabi and Charlie popped out, looking up at the disappearing forms of the other birds.

"Hmm…this is interesting. It looks like that bird's kids are missing." said Nigel, bringing a feather to his chin in thought.

"Do you have any plans to use that against him?" asked Gabi, curious.

"Well, according to what those two birds said, they will be taking the kid to some kind of sanctuary. So, all we need to do is find this sanctuary, and we'll find who we're looking for!"

"Oh, you are such a master at planning, Nigel!"

Nigel gave Gabi a smug look.

"I know. I am."

Nigel sighed before hopping back on Charlie and turning the tamandua around.

"Find me that sanctuary!" he said, pointing forwards.

Charlie didn't immediately start moving, so Nigel was forced to kick him in the side with his foot, which finally got him going as they followed the direction that Pedro and Nico went.

* * *

A few miles from where Tiago was found, Roberto and Rafael were busy trying to search their section of the jungle, calling all three of the kids' names.

Rafael couldn't help but be impressed seeing the change that came over Roberto. He was focused entirely on finding the kids, and his attention did not waver one bit. He was definitely grateful to have him along.

Unfortunately, even after searching through what they went through yesterday and starting on a new part of the forest, there was no sign of any of them. The two of them kept at it, undaunted.

After a while, Rafael was starting to get tired, so he got Roberto's attention, and the two of them landed in a tree near them to rest for the moment.

As the two of them perched on the tree branch, taking in the sights of the jungle, Rafael turned towards his partner.

"Hey Roberto, I'm impressed. You really seem to have turned things around since yesterday."

Roberto smiled.

"Really? Thanks, Rafi. Ever since we've had that talk, I've been trying my best to keep my head on straight and focus on what we're doing. By the way…what are we doing again?"

Roberto gave Rafi a look, but the toucan's angry look forced him to immediately back off.

"I'm joking! I'm joking."

Rafael didn't immediately believe him, but the sincere look the macaw gave him made him change his mind.

"So, are you gonna be alright to keep going?"

Rafi paused as he considered whether he was in fact rested. Unfortunately, before he could answer, a loud crack of thunder sounded, making the two birds jump.

"Man, another one? We just had a rainstorm yesterday!"

"Maybe it's just thunder." said Roberto.

"Could be. Let's find some shelter first, just in case it does start to rain."

Roberto agreed, and the two birds managed to find a hole in a tree not too far from where they were standing, hoping that they wouldn't have to wait out a storm for too long.

* * *

Thankfully, it was only a light rain, so it wouldn't cost Blu and Jewel any time having to stay in shelter. As they continued to fly through their part of the jungle, Blu couldn't help but sigh in content, turning towards Jewel.

"Man, this rain is actually pretty nice. I don't know why I was so worried about going outside when it's raining."

Jewel gave her mate a questioning look.

"You don't like getting wet?"

Blu's eyes widened, realizing he just blabbed something that he shouldn't have. He nervously cleared his throat, making an attempt to explain himself.

"Well, um…I don't know if you've ever experienced this before, but when it rains, it sounds much louder when you're inside a building than outside. And when you've spent as much time as I did back in Minnesota, that kind of noise can get to you sometimes. Besides, I bet you're not much different. That's why we had to seek shelter during the thunderstorm yesterday."

Jewel couldn't help but chuckle.

"Okay, I'll give you that, Blu. That was only because the rain was much worse then. When it's as light as it is right now, it's not really a huge problem for me."

Blu admittedly wasn't surprised that Jewel had a different outlook on rain compared to him. He gave her a warm smile before returning to focusing on the search.

Unfortunately, it was starting to get dark, so Jewel turned towards Blu.

"Are you ready to head back?"

Blu paused. As much as he knew that it wouldn't be safe to be out in the jungle after dark, he really wanted to at least have some kind of clue to go on. The amount of searching they've done without any clues to the kids' whereabouts was starting to worry him.

"I think we can risk a couple more minutes. It shouldn't be too big of a deal."

"Are you sure, Blu? You've said it yourself. The jungle isn't very safe at night."

"It's only a few minutes. It shouldn't make a huge difference."

Jewel was pretty impressed by Blu's sudden bravado, but the frightened look on her mate's face slightly tempered that feeling. Still, she shrugged, and the two of them continued on.

It was beginning to get difficult for the two of them to see, but somehow Jewel managed to spot something on the ground not too far in front of them.

"Hey, I think I see something!"

Blu attempted to follow the direction of her gaze to find out what she was looking at, but she suddenly went into dive, forcing Blu to quickly flap his wings to catch up with her.

After finally landing, Jewel took a closer look at what she found, which turned out to be a pair of earbuds.

"Look! I think these might be Carla's!"

"Are you sure she didn't leave them back at the sanctuary?" asked Blu.

"Then who do you think would leave a pair of earbuds in the middle of the jungle? Hmm?"

Blu opened his beak for a second before closing it, realizing that he had no answer.

"Do you know what this means? We might be getting close!"

Jewel began calling out for Carla, but Blu, not wanting to attract any predators, immediately went over and placed a wing over her beak.

"Shh! Do you want to attract that jaguar to us?"

Jewel gave her mate a dirty look, but Blu was undeterred.

"Let's head back to the sanctuary. We're on the right track, so we should hopefully be able to find her in the morning."

Jewel reluctantly agreed, knowing that continuing to search for her was only going to lead to more trouble, so the two of them began heading back to the sanctuary at a quicker pace to hopefully beat the sunset.

* * *

Thankfully, the two macaws managed to make it back to the sanctuary just before night fell. As they flew in, they were met by the rest of the search party.

"Where have you two been? We were beginning to think a jaguar got to you!" said Rafael.

Blu and Jewel shared a nervous laugh before Blu began explaining himself.

"Well, admittedly a jaguar did almost get us. We got away, though."

The other four birds gave the two of them incredulous looks, but they let him go on.

"We actually decided to hold off on coming back immediately. We were hoping to find some sort of clue about where the kids were."

"Well, did you find anything?" asked Nico.

Jewel held out Carla's earbuds.

"Hopefully she might have dropped them while they were traveling with each other and forgot about it."

Both Pedro and Nico shared a nervous look, which ended up catching Blu's attention.

"Do you know something, guys?"

Nico hopped forward, deciding to take the initiative.

"Well, you see…Pedro and I believe that the three of them might have gotten separated during the thunderstorm yesterday."

"And how do you know that?" asked Jewel, giving Nico a questioning look.

"Because we found Tiago by himself."

Both Blu and Jewel were shocked, not even sure what to think. Admittedly, they were both ecstatic that one of their kids was safe and sound, but the fact that it was only one of them made them even more worried. Jewel quickly shot over to where Nico was standing and grabbed his wing.

"Show us…please. We want to see if he's alright."

Nico didn't exactly feel comfortable showing the two macaws their son with him being in the state they found him in, but he couldn't just refuse. So reluctantly, he sighed.

"Follow me."

The canary flew off, and the rest of the group followed behind him, all in various states of nervousness (except for Pedro, as he already knew) as they wondered exactly what they were going to see.


	6. Chapter 6

DISCLAIMER: Everything related to Rio is owned by 20th Century Fox and Blue Sky Studios. The only thing I claim as my own is the concept for this story.

* * *

When the group finally managed to reach where Nico and Pedro were keeping Tiago, they were all surprised to see him somehow awake. Even Nico, who always thought of himself as a pretty rational bird, couldn't process the fact that Tiago was awake so quickly.

"Tiago. You're awake." he said breathlessly.

However, before he could go over to check on him, both Blu and Jewel pushed past the canary and rushed over to Tiago's bedside. Unable to resist, Jewel gave her son a big hug.

"Oh my god, Tiago. I missed you so much."

"I missed you too, Mom. Now can you please let me go? You're hurting me."

Jewel suddenly realized what she was doing and let Tiago go, her heart breaking as she looked at the pain in her son's face due to the bad wing.

"I'm sorry, Tiago. I didn't mean to do it that hard."

After a few seconds, the pain finally subsided, allowing Tiago to reply.

"It's okay, mom. I understand what you and dad must have been going through."

Tiago paused before continuing on.

"Also, I'm sorry for putting you through all of this. We were never planning on staying out that long. It was just gonna be an hour."

Jewel gave her son a warm smile.

"I'm just glad that you're back, Tiago. Your father and I wouldn't have known what we could have done without Pedro and Nico's help."

She looked over at the two birds in question.

"Thank you, you two. You're being such a great help."

"It's nothing, Jewel. We would have helped no matter what." said Nico.

"Yeah, what he said. What kind of friends would we be if we didn't help?"

In the midst of all of the congratulations being spread around, Rafael stepped forward and spoke up.

"Don't forget, you guys. Bia and Carla are still out there somewhere. We're not quite done yet."

The mood in the room deflated relatively quickly after Rafi's statement. Blu stepped forward to take charge of the situation.

"Rafi's right. We need to think about a new course of action. There's no telling if the two of them are together or miles away from each other, as much as I don't want to think about that."

"Well, why don't we see if Tiago knows anything? We might get an idea of where they could be." said Roberto.

Blu nodded, agreeing with Roberto's suggestion. He turned towards his bedridden son, carefully leaning over him to appear less intimidating and avoid frightening the young bird.

"Tiago, do you remember anything about what happened with Bia and Carla? You're not in any trouble. We can just really use the help."

The group watched as Tiago tried to rack his brain and remember any important details. Unfortunately, the look that he gave his parents gave them an idea of his answer before he even said it.

"I'm sorry. The last thing I can remember was the rainstorm. Bia was trying to get back to the sanctuary because she was worried you were gonna be mad about us running away. We tried to chase after her, but I couldn't see because of the lightning. So, I hit my head on a tree and got knocked out."

"And when you woke up, they weren't there with you?" asked Jewel.

Tiago simply nodded, causing his parents to trade looks of worry.

"Do you remember anything else that happened?" asked Blu.

Tiago shook his head, before his eyes suddenly widened, having remembered something.

"After I woke up, I spent some time trying to find them."

"Why didn't you come back to the sanctuary?" asked Jewel.

"I had no idea where I was. After getting hit in the head like that, I was so disoriented."

Blu opened his beak, thinking that Tiago was done with his explanation, but the young macaw continued to speak.

"I, um…I was looking around in some kind of clearing, which I think was the one that Uncle Nico and Uncle Pedro found me in. I turned around to head back when there was this big cat right in my face. I got knocked into a bush and passed out. I guess the cat must not have found me."

Blu and Jewel once again traded looks before Blu stepped forward.

"Thank you for the help, Tiago. You go get some sleep. We'll figure out a way to get your sisters back."

Tiago looked relieved at finally getting a chance at some rest, but before he could actually go to sleep, Eduardo flew in through the opening in the tree.

"Where is he? Where's my grandson?"

"Dad! Your grandson was just about to go to sleep before you burst in!" said Jewel, annoyed.

Realizing what he was doing, Eduardo calmed himself down and finally saw Tiago in his bed. A smile broke out on his face as he tried to give him a hug, but Jewel got in his way before he could.

"No hugs, dad. He's hurt."

"Oh, sorry. Anyway, how is he doing? Did he get back alright?"

"Outside of a broken wing and a few scratches, he's fine." said Blu.

Blu suddenly paused.

"Actually, come to think of it, how are we gonna fix him up?"

The entire group paused to think before Nico suddenly spoke up.

"Well, while we were bringing Tiago back here, we thought about having Linda and Tulio come look at him."

"I don't know. I remember hearing that those two were going on some kind of expedition to find this place. To be honest, who knows where they are?" said Blu.

"Well, do you have any other options?"

Blu opened his beak to answer; only to close it once again as he realized that this was the best option they had.

"Let's just focus on finding Bia and Carla, and then we'll worry about treating anything medical related."

Blu really wanted to simply lead Linda and Tulio to the sanctuary right then and there, but with the look that Eduardo had on his face, he wasn't too enthusiastic about the prospect of having humans around, despite wanting to see Tiago get better.

So, after the group agreed with Blu's plan, they all went their separate ways, except for Blu and Jewel, who decided to spend the night looking after Tiago to make sure he was okay.

* * *

The next day, the search party was all at their usual spot, preparing to try and find the remaining two kids, when a small sea of red came cascading out of the sky, forming a group of six of the scarlet red macaws including Felipe at the front.

Everyone immediately tensed when they saw the scarlet macaws land.

"What are you doing here, Felipe? Didn't we agree that this was still our territory?" asked Roberto.

Instead of making a snide remark, Felipe immediately held his wings up in front of him.

"Whoa, Roberto, chill. We're not trying to cause any trouble. I've just been thinking for the past few days since those two came through our territory."

Felipe pointed towards Blu and Jewel as he continued on.

"I've realized just how completely stupid this whole battle between our species is becoming. Honestly, I just want to bury the hatchet, which is why we'd like to offer our help in finding your children."

Only Roberto seemed to be the most surprised out of the group, mostly because of the fact that he had the most experience in dealing with the scarlet macaws in the past. Everyone else was frankly overjoyed with the fact that they had more help.

Jewel was completely prepared to agree to let them help, only for Roberto to quickly rush over and clamp a wing over her beak, silencing her. Through Jewel's muffled protest, Roberto quickly turned towards Felipe.

"Uh, can you give us a minute? We'd like to talk this over."

Felipe thought for a moment, unsure if he should let them do so, but he eventually sighed and let them go. Roberto quickly signaled for Blu to follow them, and the two of them along with Jewel flew out of earshot of the rest of the group.

Before Jewel could tell him off for pulling her away from an opportunity like this was, Roberto quickly shushed her before explaining his actions.

"Look, I'd like to have as much help to find the kids as the next bird, but are you sure you guys want to trust someone like Felipe?"

"Yeah. Why wouldn't we?" asked Blu.

"How can you be sure that he won't go back on his word and try to take the rest of our land when he gets the chance?"

Jewel sighed.

"This really isn't the time for letting Felipe's actions in the past color your judgment, Roberto. In case you don't remember, Bia and Carla are still missing, and we still have a huge amount of area to cover with just the six of us."

"But-"

"Look, I'm not forcing you to get along with Felipe and the other scarlet macaws. You and dad can work it out later. All I'm asking is that you give them a chance to help us out."

Roberto sputtered, attempting to think of something to try to convince Blu and Jewel, but he sighed when he realized that she was right.

"All right, Jewel. I see your point. I'll work with them."

"Are you gonna play nice?" asked Jewel, giving Roberto a hard stare.

Roberto nodded, although in the back of his mind, he wasn't sure yet if he would be able to.

Eventually, the three spix macaws returned to the rest of the group, and Jewel stepped forward to give Felipe his answer.

"As I was about to say, Felipe, we really would appreciate any help we can get."

Felipe smiled.

"That's great! Don't worry, we won't let you guys down. Anyway, is there anything specific that you want us all to do?"

He pointed towards the rest of his crew as he looked at Blu and Jewel. Blu paused as he thought about what he wanted to do.

"How about you guys split into groups of two and join up with our groups. With groups of four, we should be able to cover a much wider area."

"You know, that actually isn't such a bad idea." said Felipe.

He quickly partnered each of the scarlet macaws he was with and joined the remaining one. When they joined up with the rest of the group, Blu quickly turned around to face the rest of the birds.

"Nico, Pedro, Rafi and Roberto. You guys are gonna be in charge of making sure that your new recruits know what they're doing when you start searching. Please make sure they do so. I really would like to avoid risking any problems when we might be getting on the right track."

Blu looked on as all of the birds called on nodded in understanding.

"All right, so is everyone ready to go?"

Once again, everyone nodded, and the twelve birds lifted off, ready to head off on another day of searching.


	7. Chapter 7

DISCLAIMER: Everything related to Rio is owned by 20th Century Fox and Blue Sky Studios. The only thing that I claim as my own is the concept of this story.

* * *

Even with the newly acquired help of the scarlet macaws, the search for Bia and Carla hasn't been going any faster than it was before. But that didn't stop them from trying.

As Blu and Jewel led their new teammates towards the area that they were searching before, Blu spoke up, looking back towards the other macaws while he also kept his attention on the road.

"I think that we might be on the right track towards one of the kids' locations. Jewel and I found something that belonged to one of them last night."

"So, what do you want us to do, then?" asked one of the scarlet macaws, giving Blu a look.

Blu didn't answer immediately, as he quickly tried to formulate a plan. Thankfully, he didn't really have to, as Jewel suddenly spoke up.

"What do you say we all split up and divide our section of the jungle between the four of us?"

The four of them decided to land temporarily before beginning the search, and as Jewel looked around at the three males, she saw that the scarlet macaws seemed to be okay with it. As for Blu, though, she noticed the worried look on his face, and she knew that she needed to allay his fears.

"Look Blu, I know that you're worried about us getting separated and all, but we're not gonna get anywhere if we're all cramped up together, especially now that there's four of us in this group."

Blu sighed.

"Alright, let's split up, but don't go too far from each other. I'd like to have everyone on standby just in case something happens to one of us."

Blu gave an involuntary shiver as he remembered the jaguar nearly getting them.

The four birds spaced themselves out along the clearing they were in, before each of them lifted off, heading forwards as they kept an eye out for any sign of the missing children.

It didn't take long until one of the scarlet macaws spotted something, and he started yelling as loudly as he possibly could to catch everyone's attention.

Somehow, despite the large distance between the four birds, everyone showed up, out of breath.

"What? Did you find something?" asked Blu.

Rather than answer, the scarlet macaw pointed towards the ground as he hovered in the air. The four birds quickly landed down on the ground, and Blu and Jewel took a closer look at the area.

"Is that…blood?" asked Blu as he began to get nervous.

Although Jewel was worried as well, she knew that Blu's neurotic nature would only cause him to panic more easily, so she remained calm and attempted to look on the bright side of the predicament.

"Uh, just because there's blood doesn't mean that something bad's happened. Tiago didn't look so good when Nico and Pedro found him, but he's gonna be alright. Why would this be any different?"

"Well, there is a good chance that there might be something worse than a big cat roaming around here." said Blu.

"You're not helping."

Blu wisely kept his beak shut, before suddenly noticing that there was more blood heading off in another direction.

"This looks like a trail. Maybe if we follow it we might find Bia or Carla!"

"Good idea! Let's go!" said Jewel.

However, before they could lift off to follow the trail, Blu held up a wing to stop them, as he turned towards the scarlet macaws.

"You know, in all of this craziness, I don't think I ever got your names."

The two scarlet macaws started, not expecting to be asked this kind of question in the middle of a search and rescue operation.

"My name's Diego. Nice to meet you."

"Santiago."

"Great to meet you two. Now let's start following this trail while we have the chance." said Jewel.

While she tried not to be too rude to the scarlet macaws, Blu could see that she looked like she wanted to get moving, and he agreed with her sentiments.

"Alright, you guys. We should get moving."

The four birds quickly lifted off, and they began to follow the trail of blood, hoping that it would lead to something good.

* * *

Back with Rafael and Roberto's group, they also had the same idea as Blu and Jewel…sort of.

Unluckily, Felipe decided to join their group, so Roberto was unfortunately having some difficulty in keeping his focus on the mission. He wanted to be able to trust the leader of the scarlet macaws, but most of his young life was spent in battle with them, so switching right to being friends with them was kind of difficult.

Even when the group agreed that splitting up was the best course of action for their search, Roberto really wanted to keep an eye on Felipe and make sure that he wasn't going to do anything. Hopefully this would put his fears to rest and he would be able to finally get along with the scarlet macaw.

So, as they began their search through the trees, Roberto was glancing off to his right every so often, quickly trying to spot Felipe amongst the undergrowth.

From the amount of times he was actually able to see him, Roberto couldn't see any wrongdoings, which alleviated some of his concerns, but with the barely second-long glimpses, he knew he wouldn't be able to get much.

Unfortunately, with Roberto busy watching Felipe, that meant that his focus wasn't completely on the path in front of him, and that ended up biting him in the butt, as his talons clipped a tree branch, sending him off course and into the ground, rolling a few times as he landed.

Roberto blacked out for a few seconds from the shock of the landing, but when he woke up again, he slowly picked himself up and checked himself for any injuries.

Thankfully, outside of a few scrapes and some soreness in his side, he was relatively alright. Before he could lift off again and pretend nothing happened, Felipe suddenly landed next to him, a worried look on his face.

"Are you alright? You clipped that tree pretty hard, there."

Roberto considered just brushing it off and pretending like nothing really happened, but the genuine look on Felipe's face made him reconsider. That, and him being scratched up probably wouldn't work any more convincing.

"Um…just a lapse in concentration. Don't worry, I'll be fine."

"You sure?"

Roberto nodded, but Felipe knew that there was something going on, and the scarlet macaw sighed heavily.

"Look Roberto, let me level with you for a minute."

Mentally, Roberto sighed as he realized that he was getting another lecture, but he listened intently to what Felipe had to say.

"I know that we've had our differences in the past. You know…petty squabbles here, other arguments there. But I'm past that. As I've said before we left, I've realized how stupid it was to be arguing over simple things like food and land when we can work together."

Roberto opened his beak to interject, but Felipe held up a wing to stop him.

"I know what you're about to say. Land and food are important things that we all need to continue to survive, but I don't want to do anything that could lead to your species or mine being wiped out due to the lack of either."

By this point, Rafael and the other macaw, whose name they would later find out was Rodrigo, joined the two of them.

"What's the hold up, you two? We kind of need to get going while we still have daylight!" said Rafael, annoyed.

"Sorry about that. We were just having a bit of a moment here." said Felipe before lifting off and leaving Rafi and Rodrigo to look at Roberto in confusion.

The spix macaw simply shrugged, deciding that now wasn't the best time to be sharing his current emotional state when they were in the middle of searching for the kids. He was in fact quite conflicted, though, as his hatred for the scarlet macaws was beginning to wane, but not by much.

As the three birds lifted off to resume looking, Roberto sighed inwardly, wondering if he had the right idea to not trust Felipe and the other macaws.

* * *

Unfortunately for Nigel and his group, finding the sanctuary proved to be much more of a difficult task than he thought it would be. With nothing happening, the cockatoo was beginning to get bored, and he decided to take a nap for a moment.

He quickly shifted his position on top of Charlie as the tamandua continued to walk through the jungle, lying down on his back and shifting himself some more until he believed that he wouldn't fall off. Even with Charlie moving at a pretty slow pace, Nigel didn't want to take any chances.

Before closing his eyes, Nigel turned his head to face Gabi, who was perched on top of Charlie's hat.

"I'm going to take a nap for a little while. Wake me when we reach the sanctuary."

Gabi simply nodded, and Nigel turned back around, getting himself as comfortable as he can before closing his eyes.

* * *

Back with Blu and Jewel's group, they continued to follow the blood trail which seemingly had no end, as the blood remained just about the same size with each drop they saw.

Unfortunately, this fact led to many different horrible scenarios popping up in Blu's mind. As much as he tried to forget them and focus on following the trail, they continued to show up, and he knew that he needed someone to confide in, so he turned his head towards Jewel, who was flying next to him.

"I don't like this, Jewel. I really don't."

Jewel sighed.

"I know, Blu. We just need to pick up the pace. I can't imagine what kind of state whoever made this trail is in right now."

"I can." Blu said to himself, hoping that Jewel didn't hear.

Thankfully, after a few more minutes of following the trail, the blood pools began to dry up, and they knew that they were getting close. The four birds sped up, flying at an almost frantic pace, before finally reaching the end of the trail and finding themselves in the middle of a path with a couple of trees scattered around the area.

Not wanting to waste any time, Blu quickly gave his orders.

"Spread out and start searching around the area. Whoever this is can't be too far off."

Everyone did as they were asked and began combing the area, looking through practically anything they could get their hands on. Suddenly, when Diego looked into a hole in one of the trees, he noticed something blue inside and he quickly turned to face the others.

"Hey guys, I think I found someone!"

Blu, Jewel and Santiago went over to meet Diego, and after the four of them traded looks, Blu silently volunteered to be the one to look inside.

He landed on the edge of the hole and peered inside, trying to make out the figure inside. However, with it being so dark, he couldn't really see, so he turned back towards the others.

"Does anyone have a light or anything?"

The two scarlet macaws shrugged, and Jewel shook her head, so Blu sighed and slowly made his way towards the figure in the back, somehow able to make out the figure as his eyes adjusted to the darkness. And when he did, his eyes widened in shock. He quickly turned back towards the opening once again.

"You guys, come quickly! She's here!"


	8. Chapter 8

DISCLAIMER: Everything related to Rio is owned by 20th Century Fox and Blue Sky Studios. I only claim the concept of this story as mine.

* * *

After hearing Blu's shout, Jewel was about to rush in and help, but one of the scarlet macaws took the initiative and shot in front of her.

"You guys stay here. I'll go help him out."

Both Jewel and Santiago nodded, Jewel reluctantly, as Diego flew into the hole to join Blu. A few seconds later, the two birds appeared at the opening with Carla between them, thankfully awake, but looking like she was barely clinging to consciousness.

Jewel's eyes widened as she took in the state of her daughter. She looked to be about in the same kind of state that Tiago was when Nico and Pedro found him, at least according to how the two of them described it. Even then, it still hurt her to see her like this.

Jewel immediately flew down and landed inside the tree as Blu and Diego moved Carla backwards to accommodate her. She nearly made a move to hug Carla, but considering she didn't exactly know what kind of injuries her daughter had, she settled for a light squeeze.

"I'm so glad you're okay, Carla."

"M-mom?"

"Just rest for now, sweetie. We'll get you back to the sanctuary as soon as we can." said Blu.

"Thank you for finding me." said Carla weakly before closing her eyes and passing out.

Blu and Diego carefully set Carla down, and when Santiago joined them, the four birds began to try and figure out their next course of action.

"So, how are we gonna get her back to your sanctuary? She isn't exactly the lightest bird around." asked Diego.

Although slightly miffed about Diego's comment, Blu chose to ignore it and contemplate an easy way to get Carla home. Before he could figure one out, though, Jewel stepped in with an idea of her own.

"How about while one of us looks after Carla, the rest can look around the area and find something that we can use to carry her home? Maybe we could use a leaf or something."

"No offense, Jewel, but are you sure leaves would work? I've heard that they aren't exactly suited for heavy lifting." said Blu.

"Maybe if we get a couple of leaves and put them together, it might work out." said Santiago.

Blu still had his doubts about leaves being able to carry Carla all the way back to the sanctuary, but he decided there was no real reason not to give it a shot, so while Jewel took care of their daughter, he and the two scarlet macaws flew out of the tree and started collecting leaves.

A few minutes later, there was a pretty decent pile of leaves next to Jewel.

"Here's some leaves. So…what do we do now?" asked Diego, looking at Jewel curiously.

Jewel didn't answer immediately, as she began digging through the pile, eventually grabbing a few of the biggest leaves and handing them back to the others.

"Stack these on top of each other and we'll put Carla on top of them. With the four of us working together, we should be able to get her back home."

Not wanting to waste any more valuable time, Blu decided to follow along with Jewel's plan despite his reservations, and he and the scarlet macaws stacked the leaves into one and helped Carla on top of them.

However, when Jewel went over to check out their progress, she found that her original plan wasn't going to work out so well considering the shape of the leaves, so she had to improvise.

"Alright, change of plans. I don't think we're all gonna be able to grab the leaves, so Blu and I will do the carrying, while you two are gonna stay close to us to make sure she doesn't fall off." she said as she looked at Diego and Santiago.

The two scarlet macaws nodded, and the four birds took their positions, with Blu and Jewel grabbing the pile of leaves the best they could.

"You ready to go?" asked Blu as he looked back towards Jewel.

Unfortunately, Jewel was having a bit of difficulty keeping her talons gripped around the entire pile, so she was beginning to feel a bit nervous.

"Ready as I'll ever be." she said before quickly readjusting her grip.

Blu sighed, noticing the look on Jewel's face, but as much as he wanted to point it out, he knew that they needed to get Carla back as soon as possible, so he kept quiet.

"Now or never." he said to himself, before signaling for everyone to lift off, which they did as they headed out of the tree and back towards the sanctuary.

* * *

Although Nico and Pedro both agreed that it wasn't very likely that they would be able to find two of the kids in the same area of the forest they were in, they knew that they couldn't just stay at the sanctuary and disappoint Blu and Jewel, so they continued their search.

Since they had some helpers this time around in the form of two of the scarlet macaws that they found out were named Alejandro and Carlos, this allowed them the opportunity to spread out a little more and cover more ground.

After searching for a while and unfortunately coming up with nothing worthwhile, Nico flew over to each of the other birds and signaled for them to join back up, which they did, and they landed on a nearby tree branch just as Nico began to speak up.

"Any of you guys think we should call it a night? I'm not finding any signs that can point us to either of the girls."

"Me neither. With how we found Tiago, I doubt that either of them could really have gotten too much further than he did."

Nico looked over at the two scarlet macaws, and they both shook their heads, having not seen any clues either.

"You guys think we should maybe join up with one of the other groups? We might have better luck finding something then." said Carlos.

"You know, that's not such a bad idea, but I think we should at least check with Blu and Jewel to see what they think." said Nico.

Both Carlos and Alejandro shrugged. Before the four of them could head back to the sanctuary, Pedro suddenly spotted something out of the corner of his eye, and he turned to face it, trying to see what it was as it came closer.

"What in the world is that?" he said to himself as he took in what appeared to be four birds carrying a fifth under them.

Curious, Nico headed closer to Pedro and looked in the same direction the cardinal was looking in.

"Is that…Blu and Jewel's group?"

Pedro squinted as he tried to make out the figure, but he didn't really need to, as the group was now close enough for them to see clearly, and it was in fact Blu's group in question.

"Wow, I didn't realize that we ended up this far left." said Nico, before lifting off to catch up to them.

Pedro and the two scarlet macaws managed to catch up a few seconds after Nico, and the group finally rejoined Blu and Jewel's group not too long after to finally see what the four of them were carrying.

"Hey, you guys found Carla!" said Nico.

Both Blu and Jewel were nearly out of breath from the distance they flew combined with the weight they were carrying, but the both of them soldiered on. Neither of them spoke, though, as they preferred to concentrate on carrying Carla, so this left Diego to speak to them, as he was the closest.

"Yeah, we found her not too long ago and started carrying her back to the sanctuary using these leaves. They're actually holding pretty well, surprisingly enough."

"So there were no problems?" asked Nico.

"Well, she did almost fall off a couple of times, but Santiago and I were there to keep her steady."

"That's good. Hey, we're planning to head back to the sanctuary as well, so I guess we'll join up with you guys."

"No luck finding Bia?" asked Blu, catching everyone off guard due to him suddenly speaking.

"No, unfortunately. I'm beginning to think that Bia probably isn't any further away from the sanctuary than Tiago or Carla, so there's probably a good chance that we're probably not gonna find her in our section." said Pedro.

Blu didn't answer immediately, as he seemed to be lost in thought for a moment.

"Alright, let's just get Carla home, and we'll figure something out then."

As Blu and Jewel continued to carry their daughter home, both Nico and Pedro couldn't help but look worried, partly because of the state of Carla, but also partly due to how worn out Blu and Jewel looked. It seemed to the two of them that they were flying for a while.

"Hey, do you guys want any help carrying her?" asked Nico.

"No, I think we'll be good. Besides, I think I see the sanctuary up ahead." said Jewel from the back.

Nico looked in front of him and saw that the sanctuary was indeed coming up fast. Still, he couldn't help but feel nervous about Blu and Jewel, so he kept an eye on them as they headed towards the tree where Tiago was, setting Carla down near him and finally collapsing in exhaustion.

As the four scarlet macaws checked on Blu and Jewel, Nico and Pedro decided to check up on Carla and see how she was. After a close inspection, they found that outside of some bruising, a multitude of scratches, and a large gash across her cheek, she seemed to be largely unhurt, which was a relief to the two birds.

Before they could go any further with taking care of Carla, the two of them noticed Blu and Jewel slowly trying to make their way over to see Carla. Taking the initiative, Nico walked forward and blocked their path.

"Hold up a sec, you guys."

"Let us through, Nico. We want to see our daughter." said Blu, giving the canary a look to try to intimidate him into letting them through. However, Nico stood firm.

"You guys can barely stand! Go get some rest, and you can come see her later."

At another look from Blu and Jewel, Nico made a move to reassure them.

"Don't worry, we'll take good care of her and Tiago. Besides, it's getting late anyway, and I think that she needs rest as well."

Reluctantly, the two of them agreed, and they flew out of the tree to head back to their place and get some rest. Nico, meanwhile, took a quick look outside and found out that it was indeed starting to get dark.

"Man, I hope Rafi and Roberto's group gets back soon." he said to himself before heading back inside to rejoin everyone else.


	9. Chapter 9

There was good news and bad news when it came to Rafael and Roberto's group. The good news was that they were all still alright, and they were heading home.

The bad news, however, is that they were so into finding the kids that they lost track of time, and the sun went down before they realized it.

So, as they continued to make their way back home, Rafael began to realize that they were going in circles, as he recognized the clearing that they passed through a few times.

Annoyed, he knew that they needed to collect their bearings if they were going to get back to the sanctuary, so he called out to the rest of the group.

"Hey guys, hold up a minute!"

The other three birds stopped in their tracks, and hovered in place as they turned to face Rafael.

"What's going on, Rafi? Why are we stopping?" asked Roberto.

Rafael didn't answer immediately, as he beckoned them towards a nearby branch. Once all four of the birds landed, he finally answered the question.

"We need to get our bearings if we're gonna get back to the sanctuary. I think we're running in circles."

At first, the other birds just looked at him in confusion, but once Felipe took a look around the area, he began to see what Rafi was talking about.

"You know, I do remember seeing that one crazy-looking branch over there a couple of times. I guess I never really thought there was something strange about it."

"And you didn't think to mention it to one of us?" asked Roberto.

Felipe simply shrugged, and the other birds sighed.

"Alright, let's just figure out what we're gonna do. Do any of you happen to know where we are in the jungle?" asked Rafael as he looked at the other birds.

Roberto and Rodrigo shook their heads no, while Felipe spoke up.

"Well, I would know, but the only problem is that I'm so turned around right now I can't really figure it out."

Rafael sighed in defeat.

"I guess all we can really do now is to find a place to sleep for the night. Hopefully we should be able to get back to the sanctuary in the morning."

Rafi looked around at the other birds to see if there were any objections to his plan. When none came, he nodded, and began looking around for a suitable place for them to spend the night.

He didn't really have to worry about it, though, as Rodrigo pointed out a tree on the other side of the clearing.

"How about there? I think I see a hole that we can stay in."

Curious, Rafael squinted, as he tried to spot the tree that Rodrigo found, but he couldn't really see it too well.

"Stay here, you guys. I'm gonna go check it out."

Without waiting for an answer, Rafael flew off and headed towards the tree. When he reached it, he quickly flew around it to see if there were signs that anyone else was here. After that was done, and a search inside the tree was also completed, Rafael flew back over to the others.

"Come on, you guys. This tree should actually work pretty well for us tonight."

The four birds flew over to the tree and headed inside. While it was a bit of a tight fit for the four of them due to the size of the tree, they were still able to get inside fine and have at least some room to move around.

When the birds finally got situated, Roberto spoke up.

"Night, you guys."

Everyone else said their goodnights and fell asleep, all of them hoping that it would be easier to get home when it's light out.

* * *

The next morning came, and Blu and Jewel woke up with a start. They looked around in confusion for a moment before realizing that they were back in their home.

"When did we suddenly get back home?" asked Blu as he turned towards Jewel.

"Last night, I think. Has it only been one night?"

"Seems like it. The others would have called if it was any more."

The two macaws went silent for a little bit before they both remembered that they found Carla yesterday. After mentally smacking himself for forgetting, Blu spoke up.

"Do you think we should head over and see Carla and Tiago now?"

"Of course! Why shouldn't we?"

Blu had nothing to say to Jewel's question, so he simply decided to fly off and head towards where Nico had the kids. Jewel followed a few seconds after him.

Once they finally made it inside, they were greeted by both Nico and Pedro, who were doting on the two kids almost like how they did it themselves.

"So, how are they?" asked Jewel as she went up to meet the other two birds.

Nico quickly glanced over at the two kids before turning towards Jewel.

"Do you want the good news or the bad news first?"

Although Jewel was reluctant to hear the bad news, she decided that it was best to get it over with.

"Let's get the bad news out of the way."

Blu and Jewel listened with bated breath as they wondered what kind of bad news Nico had.

"Well, the bad news is that it might be a few days before they'll be up on their feet. I know that Pedro and I aren't doctors, but we did the best we could with taking care of them."

"And what's the good news?" asked Blu.

"They're gonna be fine once that happens. We actually managed to reset Tiago's broken wing somehow, so it should hopefully be back to normal once it heals."

Relieved, Blu and Jewel hugged knowing that at least two of their children were going to be alright. However, they knew that Bia was still missing, so they weren't completely relieved as of yet.

After releasing each other, Blu and Jewel walked over to where Tiago and Carla were, and they noticed that Tiago had a leaf wrapped tightly around his broken wing. Outside of that and some remnants of scratches that haven't completely healed yet, they looked pretty normal.

"Can we talk to them?" asked Jewel.

Nico didn't answer immediately, which gave Jewel an idea of his answer, but she didn't let it get to her.

"Well, I'd love to let you two, but I think it'd be better if you let them sleep. Besides, I think it might be better if we get to searching for Bia and get her back home as soon as possible."

Reluctantly, both Blu and Jewel agreed, but before they could leave the tree, Pedro spoke up.

"Hey, shouldn't one of us stay behind to watch over these two?"

"You know, that's actually a smart idea, Pedro? Would you like to volunteer?" asked Blu.

Although Pedro wasn't expecting to have to do it himself at first, he willingly agreed, and the other three birds left him to it.

They went over to their normal meeting place, only to find the four scarlet macaws that were part of their groups. Confused, Blu looked around the area after noticing that Rafi and Roberto's group weren't there.

"Any of you guys seen Rafi or Roberto?"

Santiago shook his head before speaking up.

"We haven't seen them. Frankly, we were hoping you guys would know where Felipe and Rodrigo were. They didn't come back last night."

"That's strange. Do you think that they might've gotten lost out there?" asked Jewel.

Santiago paused for a moment before answering.

"No, I doubt it. Felipe knows the jungle pretty well, and I imagine Roberto must know as well."

"Well, what if they were trying to find their way home in the dark? I can imagine it must be tougher when there's no light." pointed out Diego.

Blu, Jewel and Nico traded worried looks before Blu spoke up.

"Well, shouldn't we go out and meet them?"

Everyone was about to agree and head off to start looking for them, but it turns out they didn't really need to, as the missing group in question arrived a few seconds later.

"Where have you guys been? We were worried sick!" said Jewel as she turned angrily on the group.

"We're sorry, you guys. We were searching pretty thoroughly for Bia and Carla, and we must have lost track of time. We had to stay the night inside a tree." said Roberto.

"Well, the good news is you don't have to worry about Carla, because Jewel and I found her. With Diego and Santiago's help, of course." said Blu as he glanced over at the two scarlet macaws.

"Really? That's great! Can we see her?" asked Rafael.

"They need to rest right now. Once we find Bia, her and Tiago should hopefully have woken up." said Nico.

Although Rafi and Roberto were disappointed that they had to wait to be able to see the kids, they put that past them to focus on the task ahead. Blu then stepped forward to take charge of the group as he usually did.

"So…since there's only one of our kids left, this is going to make trying to find her a little more difficult. Does anyone have any ideas about how we should go about finding her?"

No one answered until Roberto raised his wing in the air and began to speak.

"Why don't we just all search through the section that our group was going through? I mean, Pedro and Nico found Tiago in their section, and you and Jewel found Carla in yours. What are the odds that Bia would be in ours?"

Blu paused as he considered what Roberto said.

"While I do agree that it's a possibility, I think it would probably be best if we don't leave out the chance that Bia could be in one of our sections."

"I guess all we can really do is to stick to our original plan and split off into our groups." said Jewel.

"That does seem like our best chance, Blu." said Nico.

"Alright then, that's what we'll do. We'll see you all back here at nightfall."

Everyone was about to head off into their own sections when Blu suddenly called out.

"And make sure that you're all here before then! I don't want a repeat of today!"

Rafael and Roberto knew that that last comment was pointed towards them, but they knew that they didn't want to have to go through what happened last night again, so they both resolved to keep an eye on the sun while searching for Bia.


	10. Chapter 10

DISCLAIMER: Everything related to Rio is owned by 20th Century Fox and Blue Sky Studios. I only claim the concept of this story as mine.

* * *

As expected, trying to find Bia was a lot tougher than expected, mostly because of the fact that they now had to search through almost the entire jungle to find one bird.

Still, everyone was determined to bring her back home, so as the search party flew into the jungle and split off into their normal groups; it was with a renewed vigor.

As Rafael and Roberto's group flew off towards their section of the jungle, Felipe decided to speak up and ask what everyone wanted to know about their next course of action.

"So, where do you think we should start? Do you guys want to cover what we already searched through again?"

Roberto thought for a moment.

"No, I don't think we really need to. There might be a good chance that Bia could be roughly in the same state as the other kids, so I doubt that she'd have moved much."

Rafael glanced over at Roberto, a worried look on his face as he tried not to think about what could have happened to her.

Before things could get any more down within the group, Felipe inserted himself between the two of them, intending to try and cheer them up.

"Come on, you guys! There's no reason to be so down! She's probably hiding in a safe place somewhere. If she's not perfectly fine, she's at least not going to get worse."

Both Rafi and Roberto winced, not liking how Felipe worded his last sentence. Felipe, however, completely missed it.

"What? Did I say something wrong?" he asked, confused.

"Never mind. Let's just keep going." said Roberto.

Although Felipe had a thought in the back of his mind that he may have inadvertently made things worse, he decided to worry about it later and focus on the task ahead.

So, once they finally made it to where they left off, they spread out and began searching. This time, though, they knew that they had to keep an eye on the time. None of the four of them wanted to see what Blu or Jewel would do if they missed nightfall again.

* * *

With Pedro back at the sanctuary looking after the kids, Nico ended up having to lead his group with one bird short, so covering the entire area assigned to them proved to be a little more difficult than they expected.

After some discussion between them, though, they decided to trade off covering multiple sections so that they hopefully avoid missing any kind of clues as to the whereabouts of Bia.

So, as they continued to fly through the jungle while keeping in earshot with each other for trading spots, they all kept a close eye on the area around them, hoping to see anything that would put them on the right track.

However, there was no sign of anything around them, and it was beginning to make Nico question whether there was still a point in continuing to look through their section.

"Hey guys!" he called out towards the others.

Alejandro and Carlos looked over to see Nico aim towards a tree branch off to his left. Curious, the two of them followed Nico and landed on the tree branch next to him.

"What's up, Nico? Something on your mind?" asked Carlos.

Nico sighed, admittedly not wanting to believe that his hunch was right. However, the evidence was beginning to mount, so he turned towards the two scarlet macaws.

"Look you guys, I'm sure you've probably noticed that we haven't seen anything that resembles a clue since you guys came with Pedro and I. Heck, I haven't seen anything since the two of us found Tiago! I'm beginning to think that Roberto may be right, and Bia might be in their area of the jungle."

The two scarlet macaws paused as they thought about what Nico said.

"So, if you're right and Bia's not in this part of the jungle, then what? We can't just join one of the other groups." said Alejandro.

"Yeah, Blu and Jewel will probably be pretty angry if we ditch our section, even if we have a good reason to." said Carlos.

Nico sighed.

"Alright, if you think it's best that we all stay, we'll stay. Let's just try and search through as much as we can today. Hopefully Blu and Jewel will agree with us that there's no chance Bia could have flown too much further away."

Both Alejandro and Carlos shrugged.

"I don't see any problem with that plan. How about you, Carlos?"

"Nope. I don't really know how we're gonna explain it to them, though."

"Don't worry. We'll figure it out." said Nico as he lifted off of the tree branch.

The two scarlet macaws joined him a few seconds later, spreading out once again as they went back to what they were doing before.

* * *

As with the others, Blu and Jewel's group were having a difficult time finding anything that could be a lead towards Bia. Obviously, though, they knew coming in that finding her was going to be even more difficult considering the large amount of space to cover.

So, as they continued to search through the area, none of them spoke, preferring instead to concentrate on looking around.

However, the silence didn't last very long, as Santiago suddenly called out from his end of the search area.

"Hey guys, I think I see something!"

The other three birds immediately stopped in their tracks, heading over to join Santiago, who was focused on a tree to his right. Blu attempted to look in the direction where Santiago was looking as he tried to see what he was looking at, but it just looked like a normal tree to him.

"So…what are we looking at?" asked Blu, confused.

Santiago gave Blu a strange look before realizing that he may not have been clear. Flying closer to the tree, he pointed out what he was looking at.

"You see that chunk taken out of that tree?"

Blu looked closer and indeed found a small chunk taken out of said tree. At first he wondered how he could have missed it, but then he saw that it still blended into the tree quite well, which was odd.

"Yeah, I see it. How does this apply to our current predicament then? It could have easily been anything that made that mark."

Santiago paused, realizing that he didn't really think that far ahead when proclaiming the scratch as a clue. However, once he was able to look around the area near him, he found that there was a line of paw prints leading off towards the right, as well as a large number of bushes that looked like they were pushed out of place by something moving through them.

Satisfied that he may be on to something, Santiago turned back towards the others.

"Okay, I'll admit that the chances are a bit low that Bia may be involved with whatever happened here, but I'm beginning to think that this line of prints may be here because something was being chased."

As he spoke, Santiago pointed towards the prints, giving the three other birds a chance to get a good look at them. However, instead of immediately following the prints, Blu and Jewel traded looks.

"Do you think we should try to follow these? They go into Nico and Pedro's section, and they might have seen these." said Blu.

Jewel paused to think for a moment before answering.

"Well, we've got to take any chance we can get in case it might lead us to Bia. I say we go."

Blu looked over at Diego and Santiago, who nodded, signifying that they were okay wherever they wanted to go.

"Alright then. I guess we should start following these."

The four birds began following the tracks laid out in front of them, spacing out as far as they could to not bump into each other, while at the same time close enough so that they could all see the tracks.

* * *

Even though Nigel and Gabi weren't part of the group searching for Bia, unfortunately for them, they still haven't gotten anywhere in their attempt to find the spix macaw sanctuary. It was even getting to the point that the constant silence was starting to wear on Nigel's nerves.

As for Gabi, in an attempt to alleviate her boredom, she wanted to try and carry on a conversation with Nigel. So, as she turned towards the cockatoo, she found that he was aimlessly sprawled over Charlie's back as the tamandua continued walking in a single direction.

Frankly, with the position Nigel was in, it was a wonder that he was still staying on.

After clearing her throat, Gabi attempted to catch Nigel's attention.

"Um…Nigel?" she said meekly.

To her surprise, instead of simply answering her, Nigel immediately whipped around and stared at her angrily.

"What?!"

Taken aback, what she was planning on saying next completely disappeared from her mind, and she could only stare blankly at Nigel.

Thankfully, though, Nigel soon realized what he was doing. He sat up on Charlie, nervously coughing as he tried to calm himself down. Eventually, he did, and he turned towards the frog in front of him.

"Apologies for snapping at you, Gabi. Constant silence can really get to me sometimes."

Relieved that she hadn't done something bad, Gabi smiled brightly.

"Oh, it's no big deal, Nigel. I'm just glad that everything's alright."

Nigel paused, clearing his throat once again before speaking.

"So, uh…what was it that you wanted to talk to me about?"

Even though Gabi didn't really want to talk anymore with how awkward the conversation has gotten, she decided just to go ahead and do it. However, she had to think for a moment to remember what she was going to say originally.

"Um, how's the weather for you?"

The flat stare Nigel gave her told her that probably wasn't the best thing to ask considering it's only either rain or sun in the jungle.

"Never mind."

Sighing, Gabi turned around, intending to lie down within Charlie's hat, when she suddenly noticed a small group of birds fly past them.

Initially, she wondered if she was seeing things at first, but when she remembered barely catching the fact that two of the birds were blue, she knew there was something good going on.

Excitedly, she turned back towards Nigel, who looked practically bored.

"Nigel, I think I saw the blue bird you were looking for!"

Nigel clearly didn't believe her, but he decided just to follow along with her, considering there wasn't really anything better for them to do. Sighing, he sat up on Charlie and faced forward.

"Which way did they go?"

"That way!" said Gabi as she pointed towards the right.

Kicking Charlie in the side, Nigel aimed the tamandua towards the right. As Charlie sped up, Nigel frankly was hoping that Gabi was right. Anything would be better than aimlessly riding through the jungle.


	11. Chapter 11

Time passed as Blu and Jewel's group continued to follow the trail of destruction through the bushes. As they continued to fly along the path, they noticed that the damage to the bushes was getting worse the farther they went, which made the two blue macaws nervous.

"I don't like the looks of this." said Blu as he turned towards his mate.

Jewel didn't want to think about what might have happened, so she pushed the thoughts to the back of her mind and changed the subject.

"Let's just keep going. Worrying about her is just going to make things more difficult on us."

Eventually, the four birds finally passed into Nico and Pedro's section of the jungle, and by sheer luck, they managed to run into Nico and the two scarlet macaws that were with him as they somewhat aimlessly looked around.

"Whoa, where are you guys going?" asked Nico as he noticed the four birds flying towards them.

"We found a trail. Hopefully it might lead us to Bia." said Jewel as she stopped in her tracks.

"Well, do you want us to come with you? We haven't exactly had any luck here so far today."

Blu and Jewel traded looks, unsure if adding three more birds would be a help or a hindrance.

"Are you sure that you guys haven't missed anything? There's nothing wrong with having another look around the area." said Blu as he made an attempt to shoo them away.

"No, I'm sure. The three of us were covering the area pretty thoroughly."

Blu sighed.

"Alright, I guess there's nothing wrong with you guys coming along. Just…stay behind us when we're following the trail. We're already kind of cramped up here, and we could use some more eyes to double check what we've already went through."

"Yes sir." said Nico, playfully saluting before signaling for Alejandro and Carlos to follow him behind the others.

The now seven bird group continued following the trail of destruction, keeping a close eye around the area for any sign of their remaining missing child. However, to Nico, it seemed like the trail went on forever, even reaching the far end of his section as well.

"Man, you'd think that at least one of them would have given up at this point."

He didn't get an answer, though, as Blu and Jewel were too busy concentrating on the path. As for the scarlet macaws, they just gave Nico a look before returning to their duties.

Sighing, Nico decided not to try and get an answer out of them, knowing that it was obviously going to be pointless.

Eventually, the trail led them to where the divide was between the section they were in and Rafi and Roberto's section.

Everyone was about to keep going and not try to convince themselves that it was worth continuing on, but before they could do so, Nico suddenly noticed that it was starting to get dark.

Worried, he called out to the rest of the birds.

"Hey guys, it's getting dark. Shouldn't we be getting back to the sanctuary?"

Both Blu and Jewel stopped, finally noticing that it was getting dark as they looked up to the sky.

"Maybe we should be getting back. It's already getting kind of tough to see the trail." said Blu, glancing in the direction of the sanctuary.

"We can't stop now, Blu! We're so close! All we have to do is keep following the trail, and we'll find her."

Blu looked at Jewel like she was crazy for a moment, but as he got a good look at her expression; he noticed that she looked like she was fully invested in Santiago's idea even though there still wasn't a very high chance that Bia was going to be at the end of the trail.

As much as he wanted to go back where they would be able to spend the night in relative safety, he decided that he needed to put finding Bia over his fears of getting lost.

Sighing, he turned towards his mate.

"Alright Jewel, if you think that's best. Let's work quickly, though. I don't want to waste too much time."

Jewel nodded before turning towards the others who were watching the exchange from off to the side.

"Don't worry about trying to find her along the trail. Just focus on getting to the end as quickly as possible. Do you guys understand?"

The other five birds nodded, determined not to waste any more time. With a new resolve, the group picked up their pace, knowing that they needed to get to the end of the trail as soon as possible if they wanted to be able to find Bia.

* * *

Rafael and Roberto's group were already heading back to the sanctuary after they noticed the sun disappearing over the horizon. After failing to come up with any clues, the two of them were disappointed, as they were hoping to find at least something with the fervor they've drummed up earlier.

Still, they knew that something was going to come up eventually, as they still haven't given up on the fact that Bia was probably somewhere in their section.

Anyway, as Roberto led Rafael, Felipe and Rodrigo back in the direction of the sanctuary, they were suddenly stopped in their tracks as seven birds suddenly flew in front of them.

"Watch where you're going!" yelled Rafi at the retreating group.

Annoyed, Rafael returned to focusing on getting back to the sanctuary, only for his beak to nearly drop in shock as a voice he recognized called out to him.

"Rafi, is that you?"

Rafael stopped in his tracks as he recognized Blu's voice. Turning towards where the sound came from, he realized that the entire rest of the search party was hovering in front of the four of them.

"What's going on? Why are all you guys together?"

"Blu and Jewel found a trail. They think that it might lead us to where Bia is." said Nico.

Rafi and Roberto traded surprised looks at this newest information.

"Well, what are you guys waiting for? Let's go find her!" said Roberto, only to be stopped by Blu.

"Listen guys, I appreciate the help, but we already have too many of us following the trail. You guys should head back to the sanctuary and see if Pedro needs any help. How does that sound?"

Although the two birds were disappointed that they wouldn't have a chance to find Bia, they were both happy that they had least had some way to be useful.

Nodding in agreement, Roberto continued to lead his group back to the sanctuary, leaving the others to continue following the trail.

However, as Nico, Alejandro and Carlos were about to follow the others, Blu flew in front of them, stopping them in their tracks.

"What's going on? We're kind of wasting valuable time here." said Nico, giving the blue macaw a curious look as he flapped in place.

Blu sighed before speaking.

"Look, I've been giving it some thought, and I think it might be best for you guys to head back to the sanctuary as well."

All three of the birds opened their beaks to argue, only for them to fall immediately silent as Blu held up a wing.

"I know! I know I told you guys that you could come along, but we're already risking too much by staying out here in the dark. I don't want to have to worry about all of us keeping track of each other."

Nico was slightly annoyed that he was being forced to go back, but before he could try to argue, Carlos stepped between the two groups of birds. As he began leading Nico and Alejandro back towards the sanctuary, he turned back to face the other group.

"We're just gonna head back. Sorry about all this."

After they were far enough away from the others so that they would not be heard, Carlos finally let Nico go, but instead of continuing on, Nico rounded on the scarlet macaw as Alejandro looked on from nearby.

"What the heck was that all about? We can't just let them be out there on their own!"

Although Alejandro was slightly taken aback by the tone that Nico adopted, he slowly breathed in and out to keep himself calm before replying.

"Look, I understand how much you want to help out with finding their kid. Believe me, we're happy to help as well. There's a point, though, when you have to remember that you're risking your own life as well as everyone else's."

Nico opened his beak to argue once more, but Alejandro decided to interject.

"Hey, Blu's just looking out for everyone's safety, you know? It's hard to keep track of seven birds at once."

Knowing that he no way to argue the points of the two scarlet macaws, Nico sighed in defeat.

"Alright, let's just head home. I think Pedro's probably missing me right now."

Nodding, Carlos and Alejandro led Nico back to the sanctuary, leaving him to head back to their home once he was close enough to find his own way back.

* * *

The world around him was a blur as Charlie continued to run as fast as he could in the direction where Gabi pointed them to. The only thing the tamandua could hear was the rush of the wind, which was unfortunate, as Nigel was trying to get him to stop so that they could take a look around the area.

Eventually, Nigel got annoyed enough that he roughly pulled back on Charlie's neck, bringing them to a complete stop and getting him and Gabi thrown off of the tamandua's back.

Thankfully, they didn't land too far from where Charlie was, although Nigel ended up getting a face full of dirt.

Coughing, Nigel picked himself up and tried his best to brush off all of the dirt that accumulated on his body.

"Eugh…disgusting."

After getting as much of the dirt off as he could, Nigel took a look around the area and found it to be completely empty of anything recognizable.

"Oh, for the love of…there's no one here!"

Angry, he turned to face Gabi, who somehow managed to remain attached to Charlie's hat, even though it was even further away than where Nigel landed.

"I thought you said that bird was heading this way!"

Taken aback, Gabi took a few seconds to reply.

"I did! Or, at least I thought I did."

Slightly confused, Gabi took a few seconds to look around the area as well.

"To be honest, I'm not even sure we're still on the same path."

Nigel stared at Gabi for a few moments, fuming. Eventually, Nigel sighed in defeat, knowing that it was pointless to start yelling.

"Come on, let's just go. There's no way we're going to find them at this point."

As they went over to where Charlie was, Gabi spoke up.

"So…are we going for the sanctuary again?"

"Yes, we're going for the sanctuary again."

Unfortunately, when they finally got a look at Charlie, the tamandua was on his side, completely worn out.

"And of course he's worn out! That's just wonderful!" said Nigel, throwing his wings up in the air in disgust.

Not knowing what else they could do, Nigel decided just to go ahead and rest for now. Pushing Charlie up near a tree, Nigel leaned up against him and closed his eyes, Gabi doing so as well once she managed to drag Charlie's hat over to them.


	12. Chapter 12

As Blu, Jewel, and the two scarlet macaws continued to follow the seemingly never-ending trail, the encroaching darkness was beginning to make it difficult for them to be able to see.

Blu quickly looked around at the group around him. Even though he couldn't really see what their expressions were, he could imagine they were probably losing hope.

Before he could suggest that they head back, though, Jewel spoke up.

"Maybe we should head back. I think we can probably head straight to this part of the jungle and go from there in the morning."

"Are you sure? You seemed pretty gung-ho about it before, Jewel." said Blu as he flew in front of her.

"Yeah, I know, it's just…I was hoping that we would have gotten to the end of the trail by now and found Bia. But for some reason it just doesn't seem to end."

"Well, look at the bright side. With how long the trail is at this point, Bia must have put up a good fight against whatever was chasing her."

"But we've been following this trail for miles! I can't imagine she would have that kind of endurance."

Jewel landed on a nearby branch as she tried her best not to panic, but it was getting difficult for her to hold herself together. Thankfully, though, Blu managed to follow her to the branch, placing a wing around her as he tried to comfort her.

"Ssh…ssh…don't worry, we'll find her. I don't care how long it takes. We will find her."

Jewel didn't answer immediately as she was busy trying to collect herself. This moment of silence, though, allowed Blu to hear a very out of place noise from off in the distance.

"What was that?"

As Blu tried to find the source of where the sound was coming from, Jewel looked at her mate in confusion.

"What was what?"

"Ssh. Quiet!" whispered Blu.

The four birds listened in silence, eventually managing to catch the same noise once again.

"Does that sound like…crying to you guys?" asked Diego from off to the side.

Both of the blue macaws were beginning to believe that was the case after listening closer to the sound, and they both had a very good idea of who was making that noise.

"Bia!" they both said to each other before shooting off in the direction of the sound.

* * *

As the four birds headed towards the source of the crying, both Blu and Jewel were constantly calling for Bia, not caring if they were attracting any kind of predators. They were only interested in getting their daughter back at all costs.

Eventually, the crying was at its loudest, and they knew that they were close. They knew that they had no chance to find her with it being this dark, though, so they were forced to go with the next best thing.

"Bia? Where are you?" yelled Blu.

There was no immediate answer, so Jewel decided that she probably should call out for her as well. She didn't need to, though, as they heard a voice coming from above them.

"Dad? I'm up here!"

Blu nearly bowled himself over, not expecting to get an answer so soon. After scanning the area above them, Jewel finally managed to spot the slicked back head feathers of their daughter.

Both of her parents immediately shot up to where she was sitting, which turned out to be a branch high up in one of the trees, and grabbed her in a big group hug.

"Oh, thank god you're safe, Bia. I missed you so much." said Jewel, her voice muffled as her beak was pressed up against her daughter.

"I missed you too, mom."

Blu considered pretending to be hurt at not being included in being missed, but he decided that the fact that they had all of their children back now was of more importance.

Although both Blu and Jewel didn't want to let go of Bia for fear that they'd lose her again, they reluctantly released her and gave her some room to breathe.

When they finally got a good look at her, even though it was difficult to see her at this time of night, they saw that she actually looked alright. Outside of the fact that some of the feathers on her head were matted down from the long flight, she was largely unhurt, which came as a relief to her parents.

"So, what happened? We were following a trail of torn up plants and other foliage to find you." asked Blu.

"I ran into a jaguar. I flew away as fast as I could, but somehow it kept up with me for god knows how long. I had to fly all the way up here to finally lose him!"

Blu and Jewel traded looks, remembering that the same thing happened to Tiago. They were definitely thankful, though, that the same thing didn't happen to Bia.

"I'm just glad to see you're okay. Come on, let's go home."

"Wait, Blu! We can't just go home! It's too dark for us to see!" said Jewel.

Blu mentally slapped himself, realizing that he forgot that it was super late at night.

"Alright, I guess we should just spend the night up here. Hopefully once the sun comes up, we can make our way back home."

Both Jewel and Bia nodded, and the three macaws huddled together on the branch, trying their best to go to sleep despite the open area that they were in.

* * *

Thankfully, when Blu, Jewel and Bia woke up the next morning, they found that they were still very much intact, which came as a relief to all of them.

Blu was definitely looking forward to getting back to the sanctuary and getting back to a normal life. He turned towards the others, intending to ask whether they were ready to go.

"You guys ready? I think the others are probably worried about us right about now."

Instead of eagerly agreeing, though, Jewel gave her mate a worried look.

"Are you sure that you know where you're going? We did kind of travel pretty far last night."

Although Blu had absolutely no idea where they were in the jungle, he didn't want to admit it to Jewel, so he puffed up his chest and turned towards her.

"Of course I do. All we have to do is find the trail. We go straight past that, and we should run right into the sanctuary."

Jewel easily saw through Blu's attempt at bravado, but she decided to humor him for a bit and let him lead the way.

"Alright then, Christopher Columbus. Lead the way."

Even though Blu didn't exactly get the reference, he was at least happy that Jewel was willing to give him a chance.

Peering into the distance, Blu tried to see if he could find where the trail was. He vaguely remembered veering off to the left last night when they heard Bia, so he decided that they should head in the direction that they were currently pointing.

"Let's head this way."

Reluctantly, Jewel and Bia lifted off, following Blu as he made his way towards what he assumed was the way back to the trail.

However, with the jungle looking pretty similar no matter where he looked, it turned out that finding the trail was a bit of a tall order.

When Jewel noticed the confused look on Blu's face, she knew that this was the point where she had to stop humoring him, so she picked up enough speed so that her and her mate were next to each other.

"I don't see the trail around here. Are you sure that you know what you're doing?"

Blu was beginning to panic due to being unable to find the trail, but he did his best to hide that fact from Jewel, so he adopted a nonplussed look on his face and turned towards Jewel.

"Don't worry, Jewel. I'm sure we'll find the trail sometime soon."

Jewel sighed, once again seeing through his poor attempt at hiding what he was really thinking.

"Look, I think it might be best if I take the lead for once. How does that sound?"

Although Blu wasn't entirely for the idea of giving up his leadership role, he knew that it was probably for the best, so he sighed and relented, slowing his speed down so that he was between the other two birds.

Jewel nodded, happy that Blu was being cooperative, before focusing on the area in front of her.

* * *

Unfortunately, Jewel taking the reins of navigation didn't exactly help their cause, either. They soon found themselves even more lost than before, and there was still no sign of the trail, which was starting to worry them.

After landing on a tree branch to catch their breaths, Blu decided to voice the thought that was most likely going through both his and Jewel's heads.

"I don't understand. The trail can't have disappeared on us! There's no way that that amount of damage can be covered up in one night."

Blu was beginning to panic, so Jewel was forced to take action, covering Blu's beak with one of her wings, while the other rested on one of his shoulders. Thankfully, this silenced Blu's panic attack, and he turned towards his mate just as she spoke up.

"Calm down, Blu. We'll find a way out of this. Besides, the sanctuary's huge! We're bound to find one of the other macaws to help us back home."

Blu didn't initially believe in Jewel's attempt to defuse the situation, but when she mentioned the other macaws, he began to see her point. When Jewel released her grip on Blu's beak, this gave him the chance to reply.

"You know, you're right, Jewel. What do you say we just keep heading south? We should hopefully at least run into the other scarlet macaws if anything."

Jewel nodded, before realizing something was missing.

"Say, where's Diego and Santiago?"

Blu looked around the area, realizing that the two scarlet macaws were indeed not with them. He sat there for a moment, wondering exactly why they weren't there.

"I guess they must have gone home. They might have lost track of us when we found Bia."

Jewel was disappointed that this kind of thing happened to them, as she realized that they could have used them to help get her and Blu home. Sighing, she turned towards her mate.

"Alright, I guess there's nothing we can do about that now. Come on, let's get going."

The three birds prepared to lift off, but before they could, Blu spotted something in the distance that was coming towards them at a very quick pace. Blu peered into the distance, trying to see who or what it was.

"Who is that?"

* * *

**Ooh, cliffhanger! Anyway, there's one more chapter left which'll close this story out. So, now that Bia's been found, can they find their way home? And who's that mysterious figure in the distance? Find out…soon-ish. Whenever this comes back around on my list.**


	13. Chapter 13

Both Blu and Jewel stared into the distance as they tried to make out who or what the figure was that was heading towards them.

"Do you think that they're looking for us?" asked Jewel as she turned towards her mate.

Blu was about to answer before realizing that he wasn't sure. With how far away they still were, it was very difficult for him to be able to tell whether the figure was a friend or not.

"I think we should probably get moving. I really don't want to be sitting here if he's not a friend."

After giving it some thought, Jewel agreed that was probably the best course of action.

"Come on, Bia. Let's get out of here."

Bia didn't move, however, as she was busy staring at the figure, who was now close enough that they could tell some of the more discerning features.

"Wait…isn't that Uncle Beto?"

Confused, Jewel looked back at where the figure was and saw that it was in fact Roberto, looking slightly frazzled, but none the worse for wear.

"Guys! Thank god I found you!" he said as he shot down towards the tree branch they were on.

"Roberto? How did you manage to find us?" asked Jewel.

"We were worried when you guys didn't show up last night. Everyone else wanted to come out and help find you guys, but I managed to convince them to let me do it solo, since I knew the jungle the best. Let me tell you, though. Nico, Pedro and Rafi were pretty insistent."

"Well, that's them, I suppose." said Blu, awkwardly chuckling.

"Even then, there was still a lot of ground to cover. How long did it take you?" asked Jewel.

"Not long, actually. We're actually not that far from the sanctuary."

Caught off guard, both Blu and Jewel traded looks before taking in the sight of Roberto hurriedly trying to smooth down his feathers. Roberto noticed the strange looks, though, and he voiced his displeasure.

"What? Can't a guy be worried about his missing family?"

It was then that Roberto noticed the fourth bird in their group. Eyes widening, he turned back towards Blu and Jewel.

"You guys found her! That's awesome! How is she?"

"I'm fine, Uncle Beto." said Bia.

"Yeah, it turns out our daughter's a pretty tough cookie. She outflew a jaguar for a pretty long distance and didn't even get a scratch." said Blu.

Bia blushed immediately, not expecting the compliment.

"Stop it, dad! You're embarrassing me!"

Blu just playfully ruffled her head feathers while Bia simply huffed.

As Bia attempted to smooth her feathers down to where they originally were, Roberto decided that now was probably a good time for them to get back.

"So, do you guys want to head back to the sanctuary? I'm sure there are quite a lot of birds who'd love to see you guys back."

Blu looked over at Jewel and Bia just as the young macaw finished fixing her feathers.

"You guys ready to go?"

Both of them nodded, eager to finally get back. Soon after, the three birds lifted off, following Roberto as he led them back towards the sanctuary.

* * *

When they finally returned to the sanctuary, they were immediately mobbed by the rest of the search team, each of them trying to get words in to the conversation. Finally, after a few more seconds, Blu decided that it was best to calm things down.

"Alright you guys, we all missed you too. Let's all head back to the tree house. I'm sure Tiago and Carla would love to see that Bia's back as well."

Bia immediately turned towards her dad, surprised. When her parents found her, she initially thought that the others were still missing, but she grew relieved now that she knew that Carla and Tiago were alive and well.

That feeling of relief changed to worry, though, when she saw the state that her two siblings were in.

"What happened?" she asked, being careful not to speak too loudly since they were asleep.

Blu didn't really want to be the one to bring the bad news, but when no one answered immediately, he decided that it was probably going to be up to him. However, he was saved from having to answer when Jewel interjected into the conversation.

"They…let's just say they weren't as lucky as you were."

"They're gonna be fine, though. Pedro and I have been keeping watch over them since we found them." pointed out Nico when he noticed the look of despair on Bia's face.

Thankfully, that seemed to have done the trick, as Bia looked noticeably less depressed after hearing that her brother and sister were going to be okay.

It was then that both Tiago and Carla woke up, and they both smiled upon seeing the group that was in front of them.

"Hi, everyone." said Tiago weakly.

"Hey, Tiago. How are you feeling?" asked Blu as he walked over to Tiago's bedside.

"Alright. Still can't feel my one wing, but I guess that'll happen when it's wrapped up like this."

Blu warmly smiled, happy that things were going well with his son.

"How about you, Carla? Everything going alright?" asked Jewel as she stood next to their daughter.

"I'm good, mom. Uncle Nico and Uncle Pedro were super nice."

Jewel turned towards Nico and Pedro, as they both shuffled their feet, looking bashful.

"Thanks so much, you guys. We really appreciate all the help that you've given us."

"Aw, it was nothing." said Pedro.

"Yeah, we're glad to help." said Nico.

It was then that the two noticed the presence of their sibling in the room, and they both smiled.

"You found her! Oh, I was so worried when she wasn't here." said Carla.

As for Tiago, he didn't really say anything, as he chose to let his expression show his true feelings about the return of his sister.

"Well anyway, I think we should leave these two alone for a bit and let them rest. What do you guys think?" asked Jewel as she looked around at the group.

Everyone nodded except for Bia, which Blu thankfully noticed and he took action.

"Bia, do you want to spend some more time with your brother and sister?"

Bia paused, not answering her dad immediately.

"Yeah, I do. I haven't seen them in days."

Although slightly caught off guard by the worried look Bia had on her face, Blu willingly let her stay with them as the rest of the group gave them space.

As everyone flew away from the tree, Blu gestured for Jewel to follow him, and the two of them landed on a branch nearby. They watched as Nico, Pedro and Rafael went off to their clearing, presumably to get back to work on preparing for the Carnaval performance.

Unfortunately, they didn't really get much more of a chance to finally rest, though, as they noticed Eduardo flying towards them, landing next to them on the branch.

"Daddy? What's going on?" asked Jewel, curious.

Eduardo didn't answer immediately, nervously clearing his throat before adopting a business-like tone to his voice.

"I hear that you guys have managed to find the kids."

Eduardo fell silent, unable to think of anything else to say.

"Yeah, we did. Is that all you wanted to say?"

Unable to come up with anything else, Eduardo sighed, knowing that he really needed to confess to his actions.

"Jewel, I just wanted to apologize for the way I acted before this whole mess started."

"No, I get it, daddy. You were looking out for the flock."

"I know, but…this isn't about that. I know you apologized to me before, but I still was barely around, even when you managed to find Tiago and Carla. Frankly, I was more concerned with everyone else than you guys, and I think that's really inexcusable."

Jewel couldn't bear seeing the look on her dad's face anymore. She immediately went towards him and wrapped her wings around him.

"I forgive you, daddy. Just promise you're gonna be around more, okay? I'm sure the kids miss you just as much."

"Don't worry, I will." said Eduardo sincerely.

Jewel and her dad soon separated from each other, but neither spoke, as they didn't really know what to say. Thankfully, Jewel managed to catch Eduardo glancing towards the tree where the kids were, and she caught on to what her dad was asking.

"Do you want to go see them, daddy?"

Eduardo nodded.

"Yeah, I'd love to see them."

"Well, I'm not going to stop you. Just…try not to make too much noise, okay? I think Tiago and Carla might be asleep. I imagine Bia's probably awake, though."

Eduardo warmly smiled.

"You are definitely my little girl." he said, causing Jewel to smile back at her daddy.

After Eduardo lifted off to visit the kids, Blu and Jewel finally had an opportunity to turn around and enjoy the perfect view they had of the sunset.

"Isn't this wonderful, Blu? The kids are finally home, and we can finally get things back to normal." said Jewel as she rested her head on Blu's shoulder.

"Yeah…it is nice." said Blu, enjoying the view as he wrapped a wing around his mate.

Jewel couldn't help but giggle at Blu's vague statement.

"You're my one and only, Blu."

Blu simply chuckled, giving her a peck on her cheek before the two of them watched the sun go down.

* * *

**A Few Weeks Later…**

Blu and Jewel were attempting to sleep inside their tree house despite the sounds of their rambunctious children eager to spend some time together.

"Wake up, mom! Uncle Nico and Uncle Pedro said that we could help them with their Carnaval performance today!" said Tiago as he tried to poke Jewel awake.

Meanwhile, both Carla and Bia were busy trying to get Blu to wake up, but their father was sleeping like a rock, so it was tough. They did eventually manage it, though, by Tiago yelling into his dad's ear.

"Wake up, dad!"

Blu immediately freaked out upon waking up, nearly falling on to the tree bark under him before catching himself.

"Oops. Sorry, dad." said Tiago, realizing his mistake.

Thankfully, Blu was feeling pretty good today, so he wasn't mad at his son at all for waking him up so roughly. Before speaking to them, Blu took a moment to watch the kids as they all crowded around Jewel, eagerly waiting for her to take them to see Nico and Pedro.

In the few weeks since all three of them were recovered from the depths of the Amazon, both Tiago and Carla managed to heal up quite nicely. Even Tiago's wing managed to heal straight, which was a miracle on its own, but he did have to relearn how to fly so as not to reaggravate the injury.

As for Bia, while she managed to escape any physical scars, the emotional scars still lingered, at least for a little while. They did manage to help her out, though when Blu and Jewel talked to all three of them as they recounted their reasoning behind running away in the first place.

Blu could remember the words that Bia said just as clearly today as back when she originally said it.

"We don't want you guys to fight!"

Although both Blu and Jewel reassured the three of them that wasn't going to happen again, it took another nighttime conversation between them before they were finally able to work things out. Apparently the kids must have been listening whenever they were having their argument all that time ago.

Blu soon managed to pull himself back to the present just as everyone else was about to leave.

"Ready to go?" asked Jewel, looking at her mate curiously.

"Absolutely."

The two lovebirds traded warm looks before the five of them flew off, ready to enjoy another beautiful day inside the Amazon.

**THE END**

* * *

Okay, so I know you guys were probably expecting a bit of closure with Nigel and Gabi. Let me explain, though. As I've said in the summary for this story, this takes place during the events of Rio 2, more specifically between the fruit ball game between the blue and scarlet macaws, and the battle with the loggers. Outside of his escapades as "Bob the Bird", Nigel is never technically face to face with Blu until the end of the film, which is why I don't have them meet during this story. I hope that you guys understand.

Anyway, I do sincerely appreciate each and every one of the people who've read this story for taking time out of their lives to read my dumb little fanfiction. It really warms my heart knowing that you guys enjoy my writing, even if there are times that I don't think I'm at my best.

So, now that that's out of the way, I hope that you've enjoyed this, and I'll see you guys again!

**RK**


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